Malibu City Council Assesses Disaster Preparation Shortcomings

• Members Allocate Funding for Preliminary Improvements as Review Continues

BY BILL KOENEKER

As smoke and fire raced toward Malibu City Hall and quickly cut off power, the municipality’s emergency operations center had to be moved out of the Stuart Ranch Road offices onto the Pepperdine University campus after power failures that Sunday morning closed down the EOC.

Malibu City Council members last week at a special meeting said they did not want that to happen again and allocated $200,000 for power equipment and other supplies to rectify the situation.

Council members also explored whether city officials should have satellite phones or other hardware for emergencies. They instructed the city manager to use his discretion in spending the money.

City Manager Jim Thorsen acknowledged there were “a couple of issues” during the fire and suggested he would use the funds to shore up “the weakest links.”

Thorsen said he and his staff would look at not only acquiring a generator to power the EOC, but purchasing an additional unit.

Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Brad Davis indicated the city does have back up generators, but none of them are set to automatically go on when the power goes out. Thorsen said an automatic system is required.

Council members indicated they wanted to see the city’s power problems and any other obvious emergency preparations taken care of immediately.

Councilmember Andy Stern disagreed with the majority, saying there should be a study before money was turned over. But the measure passed on a 2-1 vote, with the approval of Councilmembers Sharon Barovsky and Pamela Conley Ulich. Mayor Jeff Jennings and Councilmember Ken Kearsley were absent.

There were other lessons that city officials should have learned from last January’s Malibu Road fire as they had been previously addressed.

“We knew Charter might go out. We decided last January to get a television [satellite] dish and we could watch what the media broadcast. We did not lose television,” added Davis, who acknowledged that the city was without its cable broadcast television on channel three on Charter.

Davis said the city’s radio station, which does not perform very well during the best of times, performed poorly during the fire.

Thorsen said he wants to look at upgrading the signal tower for better radio communications. “Maybe we will get a tower on one of the islands,” he added.

Davis said, in the meantime, he would suggest that if folks want to get their information via radio, they stay tuned to one of the all-news stations such as KNX.

The EPC said the city was most successful in getting information out via the telephone hotline.

“It does not need a lot of technology. We had our first information out by 6 a.m.,” he added.

The city official also explained some of the evacuation procedures taken by the city. He said a facility was set up at the Trancas end of Zuma Beach. “We were telling people to go to that side of the beach,” he noted.

Davis said the city was not in the loop when Agoura Hills High School was tapped for a Red Cross Center. “We said we need Malibu to be in on it. We said Malibu High School should be designated as an evacuation center,” he said.

Thorsen indicated that the city’s emergency call system was not activated. “We had already evacuated the streets. We were already past that point and did not activate it,” he added.

The city’s emergency call system is operated by a private company, American Emergency Notification, which operates a computerized phone system that can reach thousands of numbers an hour, providing detailed emergency information. The system can leave voice mail and answering machine messages and also can redial if there is a busy signal or no answer.

“We are not sure the company can provide what we need. We are going to be looking at that,” added Thorsen, who explained that the city wants to look at developing more of an e-mail warning system, but didn’t explore the power concerns related to that.

Role of Downed Power Lines in Start of Malibu Wildfire Is Being Investigated

• Condition of Southern California Edison Poles Targeted for Scrutiny

BY HANS LAETZ

Although fire investigators have yet to release an official report, the first fire crews to arrive at the scene of last week’s Canyon Fire pinpointed a splintered Southern California Edison Co. wooden pole as the apparent source of the fire that threatened eastern Malibu with destruction.

If the pending official investigation confirms that, this would be the second time in 11 years that power lines in or near Malibu Canyon have failed in windstorms, both times causing calamitous fires.

The Office of the State Fire Inspector has sent investigators to Malibu to see if some of the power poles in the canyon are old and spindly, and stressed by heavy loads and winds, possibly making them susceptible to failure.

“You can see from the burn pattern, it spread from that line,” yelled a firefighter from Los Angeles County Engine 89, pointing through the wind and ash in fire-filled Malibu Canyon about two hours after the pole was snapped by estimated 100-mph wind gusts.

Twelve hours later, after the fire had moved on, the splintered poles were photographed where they fell on the roadside, just north of the old Sheriff Honor Camp turnoff above Rindge Dam. It appeared that the poles had snapped in the wind, as they did not burn in the fire.

The poles were removed the next day by Edison crews working around the clock, in terrible wind and smoke conditions, to rebuild the circuit and clear the road of two miles of tangled lines and poles. Numerous poles fell on or near the canyon road during the windstorm and resulting fire last weekend, officials said.

Calls to Southern California Edison’s news office this week were not returned. Los Angeles County fire officials said their investigation was continuing.

Back in 1996, the Calabasas-Malibu fire was sparked by a power line dropping from SCE poles south of U.S. 101, east of Malibu Canyon-Las Virgenes Road, and about six miles north of last week’s failure. The ’96 fire injured 11 people, including six firefighters overrun by a sudden flashover in Corral Canyon.

Last week’s fire cost $5.8 million to extinguish, and injured three firefighters. Damage estimates are not yet tallied, but parts of Malibu were evacuated and local schools and businesses were closed for up to a week.

The state investigators are assisting LAC investigators to determine the cause of the Canyon Fire, said Cal Fire’s chief of law enforcement, Dave Hillman, from the emergency command post in Sacramento.

“Our role in the investigation is purely to investigate the cause of the fire,” he said Tuesday.

Spindly-looking power poles along Malibu Canyon Road have been a source of concern for several months for some residents, including Ed Meyer, whose house high above the canyon on Piuma Road overlooks the sinuous route below. Meyer said he has been warning Edison for several months that its older poles were falling over.

“Those lines were hanging out over the road for months,” Meyer said. “The company has replaced some of the poles with new ones, and put up a steel pole in one place, but a lot of those old poles are down there still.”

Meyer is most concerned with wooden poles that anchor a span of wires that cross the entire canyon on one reach, more than a quarter mile from Malibu Canyon Road up to the summit on Piuma. “Those poles swing like crazy in the winds.

“This whole system has been weakened for years, and I think there was so much tension on the whole thing that it snapped and pulled the whole string down,” he said this week.

City officials said they wanted to see an official report, but said power poles are probably not designed to withstand the winds of 100 mph that swept down the canyon that Sunday morning.

“Those wooden poles are 19th century technology,” said Malibu City Councilmember Ken Kearsley. “We have a choice: we can underground [the lines] at the cost of a million dollars a mile, or we can put them on steel poles.”

But Kearsley said it was important not to rush to judgment on the issue. “Those were hundred-mile-an-hour winds,” he cautioned. “To what extent of wind do you plan for?”

Meyer has more than a passing interest in the string of power poles in Malibu Canyon that for years had been tilting over at an angle: his home was nearly burned in last week’s fire.

“I lost two acres of succulents next to my house, which I foamed.” Meyer said. “You’ve gotta foam up here to save your house.”

“But this was no act of God, they have been neglecting this for years,” Meyer said.

Malibu Slowly Returns to the Routines of Daily Life after the Canyon Fire

• Signs of Recovery Are Evident Throughout the Community

BY HANS LAETZ

As fire investigators concentrated on the possible failure of a power line in Malibu Canyon, students returned to classes, construction crews labored to remove debris, and life in the Malibu fire area began to take on a more routine status.

Although no local loss estimate has been tallied yet, the Los Angeles County Fire Department says it took $5.8 million in public funds to extinguish last week’s fire, tentatively blamed on 100 mile-per-hour winds that snapped power poles in Malibu Canyon.

Initial official damage assessments missed some classroom damage at Our Lady of Malibu Catholic School, and two businesses closed by fire at the shopping center: the First Bank and Trust Company’s branch, and the city’s newest Starbucks outlet, both red-tagged due to roof damage.

Construction crews at the stricken Malibu Colony Shopping Center on Monday finished demolishing a clock tower and several sections of roof that roared with flame during the Oct. 21 Canyon Fire, which burned 4566 acres and destroyed 12 structures and damaged another 20 in Malibu.

School children returned to their classrooms at Webster Elementary and Our Lady of Malibu schools Monday, and found the two neighboring schools on Winter Canyon freshened up thanks to heroic volunteer efforts.

Two classrooms at the parochial school burned. A computer lab in a trailer was destroyed and the ceiling of the 7th/8th grade classroom was charred.

A large crew of demolition experts labored all week at Our Lady of Malibu to remove debris. “They have to redo the ceiling in that classroom,” said parent volunteer Scott Schoenberger. “That class will meet in the Fellowship Hall this week.”

Across the street at Webster, “we had about 30 parents put in a five-hour workday Sunday, to clean the yard up,” said Webster’s PTA president, Dorothy Reinhold. “We removed anything and everything that looked burned.”

Several truckloads of burned trees, playground equipment and a destroyed art-project shed had to be carted off. By Monday, the only sign of fire was the singed trees ringing the campus.

Parent Catie Norris had arranged for the Sylmark Corporation to donate 25 air purifiers to remove any lingering smell from the classrooms.

Other than the landscaping, only two temporary storage rooms were lost to flames at Webster. “Stunning,” was the assessment from principal Phil Cott, as he watched pupils arriving for class Monday after a week’s closure.

At City Hall, it was business as usual this week, the power back on and employees processing permit requests. The downstairs offices were being painted over the weekend the fire struck, further complicating an almost Murphy’s Law set of circumstances that included the municipal offices being surrounded by fire, blacked out, its cable TV station off the air, its cable system down for four days, and its Internet servers dead.

“I’m very, very proud of the city staff’s response” that Sunday morning, said City Councilmember Andy Stern. “(Administrative services director) Reva Feldman literally drove through flames to get to City Hall, and when she got in, it was filled with smoke.”

Mario Reyna, the city’s computer administrator, also braved surrounding flames to retrieve hard drives with vital records, Stern said. The leased building itself did not burn, although trees and brush on all four sides did.

Craig George, the city’s environmental and building safety manager, said Monday that “not one” septic or sewage system failed anywhere in Malibu due to the fire. He and other staffers are compiling a tally of damages within city limits but have not completed it yet, said city manager Jim Thorsen.

Los Angeles County Health Department officials put out a news release last week that said the fire had caused a “minor” spill of 20,000 gallons of treated sewage into the ocean at the Malibu Bay Club apartments, located near County Line.

That prompted several news agencies to mistakenly report that beaches in Malibu were polluted by sewage systems incapacitated by the fire.

Verizon crews continued Monday to repair cables in the Civic Center area that were burned, but outages were reported only in actual burn areas. The Charter Communications connection to the outside world was reconnected as promised on Wednesday, restoring phone, Internet and local television service.

County Supervisors Unanimously Approve LCP for Santa Monica Mountains

• Malibu Repesentative on Board Gets OK for Two Dozen Changes to Planning Document

BY BILL KOENEKER

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved the Local Coastal Program for unincorporated areas of Malibu and the rest of the Santa Monica Mountains at its meeting this week.

The board had met last week and continued the matter until this Tuesday when, on a 4-0 vote with Supervisor Gloria Molina absent, it approved the document.

Planners had recommended 30 policy changes to the document and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who represents this area, offered 24 more revisions.

“The LCP will dramatically reduce zoning densities, ban new residential and commercial development in Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Areas, prohibit new development within 50 feet of significant ridgelines, require thorough biological review prior to the issuance of any coastal development permit, reduce grading and site disturbance, dramatically limit the footprint of new development and preserve the free movement of wildlife throughout the Santa Monica Mountains Coastal Zone,” Yaroslavsky said of his revisions.

Those changes include prohibiting camp fires in the mountains, facilitating the rebuilding of homes destroyed in a disaster, and banning new development on slopes of 50 percent or greater.

That livestock containment facilities would be grandfathered with respect to mandated setbacks; the maximum size of a building site in watersheds would be limited to 10,000 square feet; and Arizona crossings would be phased out are some of the approved changes.

Yaroslavsky’s motion was approved by the board and incorporated with staff recommendations.

A county planner indicated the department would incorporate these revisions into the document and then it will be brought back as a consent item for final approval.

At that point, the LCP will be submitted to the California Coastal Commission for certification. That meeting is not expected to take place until the middle or end of 2008.

When the last of the public speakers had testified, the focus was on what is called backyard horse boarding. Additionally, speakers were critical of what they called the “commercialization of the mountains” as the LCP allows bed and breakfast inns in certain zones. Some heated discussion focused on issues related to the land use designation of Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area.

Equestrians showed up in full force at the meeting, some to counter what they perceived as an anti-horse stance by a group that got involved late in the planning process and warned that some of the provisions of the LCP represented a loosening of restrictions.

Jacky de Haviland, the president of Citizens for a Better LCP, insisted her group and the equestrians are not that far apart. “I think the equestrians don’t realize how close we are. They decided we are the enemy. We never said anything about keeping horses out of the mountains,” she said.

Horse owners, from the onset, had urged county planners to highlight equestrian uses because of the historical significance of horses in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Planners acknowledged in keeping with the spirit of coastal access, equestrian uses would play a role in the LCP process, but insisted the regulations about horse boarding were not loosened in the planning document.

De Haviland indicated they now want to see restrictions tightened up. She and others praised Yaroslavsky’s contributions to the document, but said that other issues would need to be addressed before the California Coastal Commission when it takes up the matter of certifying the plan.

Another issue that surfaced on the day of the hearing was a published report that the coastal agency would take issue with the county’s stance on ESHAs.

County planners had early on acknowledged that they were treating ESHAs differently than what the Coastal Commission had compelled the City of Malibu to implement, but encountered no discouragement from the state agency until this week. “We disagree with the Coastal Commission,” said a county planner.

Yaroslavsky insists that because of the Santa Monica Mountains’ “environmental sensitivity, susceptibility to wildfires and geological hazards, the proposed LCP unequivocally establishes the principle that resource protection and public safety have priority over development.”

Double Fatality Puts Malibu’s Kanan Dume Road in the Spotlight—Again

• Authorities Are Stymied by Drivers Who Do Not Use Arrestor Bed to Stop Runaway Vehicles

BY ANNE SOBLE

A fiery collision involving a gravel-filled double trailer truck and two automobiles at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Kanan Dume Road claimed the lives of two men—including Malibu resident William Weissberg—and resulted in serious injuries for Dave Wise, a veteran county firefighter.

Flames from the crash could have ignited office complexes adjacent to the bluff where the runaway truck exploded about 10 a.m. last Wednesday, just as wildfire-weary Malibuites were getting the smoke and ashes out of their systems.

The driver of the big rig was identified by authorities as Hovik Oganes Papikyan, 34, of Glendale.

County Sheriff’s Traffic Sgt. Philip Brooks said Papikyan was traveling illegally on Kanan Dume, which is closed to vehicles over 8000 pounds with more than two axles.

The sheriff’s department spokesperson said a preliminary review of accident data indicates the truck driver was traveling about 70 mph when he may have experienced brake failure on the road’s steep grade. He ran the red light at the PCH intersection, crashing first into the Mercedes driven by Weissberg, then into Wise’s Mercury SUV.

After it hurled over the two vehicles, the truck smashed into the embankment, shifting the gravel load forward, as well as sending it flying into the air, and killing the driver, according to Brooks.

A question repeatedly asked at the accident scene was why Papikyan did not use the 800-foot runaway vehicle arrestor bed. The emergency lane was installed in 1987 following a rash of similar truck accidents, including two in a three-week span that claimed three lives. At that time, there was a community outcry that the intersection was a safety hazard.

The arrestor bed, which is 16 feet wide and 2.5 feet deep (filled with gravel and sand), is bounded by a side concrete railing and terminates with a phalanx of 72 barrels—each filled with 1400 pounds of sand—that serve as impact-reducing devices.

There are 21 signs alerting drivers to the road’s steep grade, the need to check brakes, and the presence of the runaway vehicle lane, which has averted well over a dozen crashes.

One factor expected to be addressed in the accident report is that the last, largest warning sign was knocked down during the weekend before the accident by the nearly 100-mph winds that fueled the wildfire that started Sunday, Oct. 21. That sign was not put back up until after the accident.

Another issue expected to be raised is the concern voiced by Brooks that truck drivers were violating the truck ban rather than taking the longer detours through Camarillo-Oxnard or Santa Monica that were mandated by the closure of Malibu Canyon Road due to the wildfire. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol personnel were taxed by the fire, and there was no way to step up law enforcement on the one canyon route that remained open.

William Weissberg, 58, the Malibuite who was killed in the crash, was not identified until this Monday. Weissberg was a Century City attorney who was married and lived in the Malibu Knolls area, one of the neighborhoods hardest hit by last week’s Canyon Fire. A colleague said Services for Weissberg were reportedly slated for this week at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park.

The east Malibu resident’s car was totally incinerated by the intensity of the fire at the crash scene. His name was withheld for five days because of the additional time required for identification and notification of next of kin.

At the wheel of the second struck vehicle, a white SUV, was a 25-year county firefighter, Dave Wise, who suffered a smashed foot that may require surgery, broken ribs, extensive bruising and possible head trauma.

Wise, 45, was pulled from his burning car by Ocle Martinez, who works in property management at the Point Dume Professional Center above the embankment that the truck drove into, and sheriff’s deputies who were among the first to respond to the scene.

The veteran firefighter, who has been released from the hospital and is recuperating at his home in West Hills, described the crash to the Malibu Surfside News: “I remember a sound of heavy metal, sparks, flying metal and debris, then I passed out...when I came to, there was fire all around me...my clothes were soaked with diesel fuel.”

He said that he still can’t believe that he “survived the [flames and fumes]. I am so grateful...” His wife, Penny, said simply that “he has a guardian angel...if the truck had hit the car an inch or two in either direction, Dave would be dead.”

Wise paused, then softly explained that when he was assigned to local Fire Station 99 two years ago, his was the second unit to respond when an overloaded double rig of roof tiles barreled through the same intersection. The light was green and the intersection was empty at the time.

The driver of that truck was killed but a passenger in the cab survived.

An intensive investigation of last Wednesday’s accident is expected to take several weeks or more, according to Brooks. In addition to questions about signage placement, investigators will try to determine the truck’s condition, what kind of training the driver had and whether he was directed to use Kanan.

The LASD spokesperson said it is possible that “damage to the truck is so intensive that the investigation may yield few, if any, clues.”

Brooks said the possibility that Papikyan panicked or froze at the wheel is not being ruled out.

A family member told Brooks that the driver spoke and read English. It is surmised that he knew he was on the road illegally and saw the signs about the runaway vehicle lane.

Why he ignored the arrestor bed and tried to turn onto Pacific Coast Highway, causing the truck to go into a centrifugal skid, may never be known.

• The Publisher’s Notebook •

Malibu Fire Aftermath: Nature Has to Heal

BY ANNE SOBLE

The aftermath of a major disaster is fraught with the extremes of every human emotion. When the grieving has stopped, as it should, the process of recovery begins. Whether in the raised voices of the congregants of a burned-out church or the more personal realization by someone who has lost every material possession that things may be gone but memories last forever, humans have an infinite capacity to heal. Just as we reach out to help those who have been affected by the recent fire, so can we help nature heal from an event that has claimed not just acreage but wildlife habitat. Animals, large and small, have lost food and shelter, and this may result in an unfortunate increase in human interaction, not by choice but because it is unavoidable. From the deer herds of Malibu Canyon that have graced this newspaper’s cover, to the mountain lions who traverse miles in their wanderings, sightings may increase. Coyotes, raccoons and other mid-size animals may turn to human habitat as an alternative food source, but under no condition should wildlife be fed or otherwise acclimated to human contact. Extra precautions should be taken with family pets and other domestic animals.

Human patience can be sorely tested when nature is out of kilter. After the 1993 wildfire, when my ranch boundaries had been scorched by menacing flames and extensive (and extraordinarily successful) backfiring, I thought that every squirrel in the Malibu hills had sought refuge inside my gates. My livestock feed bill almost doubled because as soon as grain was put out, dozens of squirrels came out of nowhere to ravage it. New feed containers helped, but time solved the problem. Within a few months, the squirrels’ natural habitat was restored and they moved on. If rodents or other small critters become a short-term problem, there should be absolutely no consideration of using rodenticides. Be patient, and give nature a chance. There may be some inconvenience, or even some loss, but poisoning the wildlife food chain will do far more damage and ultimately create a far greater imbalance.

The shortage of water in wilderness areas during the current drought has been exacerbated by the recent fire. My personal exception to the prescriptive against wildlife interaction (frowned upon in some quarters) involves providing water sources, making certain they are not located where human encounter is likely. I have submerged horse troughs in my backcountry (well outside the fenced corrals and residential areas) that are kept filled with well water. Those who reside in more urbanized areas of Malibu might opt to fill a bird bath, or consider hanging a hummingbird feeder, as their contribution to thirsty critters. Whatever we do, we must not add to the plight of the already scarred land and prevent it from coming back on its own.

Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Puts Renewal of Parcel Taxes on February Ballot

BY HANS LAETZ

Malibu voters will not only decide on a presidential favorite on “Super Tuesday,” but will vote in the February 5 election on whether to retain a $346-per-parcel real estate tax for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.

The vote on whether to extend the parcel tax will come on the heels of a controversial, last-minute decision by the school board two weeks ago to strip half of the bond money recommended by district staff to build new classrooms at Malibu High School, and divert those funds to replace badly dilapidated sections of Santa Monica High School.

The parcel tax renewal is viewed as critical by school backers, who say it has made the hiring of 50 teachers possible. The special tax makes up for inadequate funding from state property and income taxes, and is credited by the district for the stellar marks that students at its 17 campuses get on state tests.

Class sizes in core classes such as reading, writing and mathematics are reduced using teachers hired by parcel tax receipts, and the entire music and arts programs rely on the parcel tax.

A poll taken by the district of voters found support hovering around 70 percent for the tax measure. The poll was careful to point out that taxes would not go up if the parcel tax measure is passed by 67 percent of the electorate—it will only extend taxes that have already been approved by the voters.

But the matter will go before the Malibu electorate as it reacts to a last-minute decision by the school board to cut in half the recommended $27 million Malibu High construction budget, and instead recommend that $13.5 million of that total be channeled to bigger construction needs at the district’s 70-year-old Santa Monica High School.

Board president Kathy Wisnicki, the lone Malibu resident on the school board, was unable to attend the meeting due to an ankle injury. She told Malibu parents in an e-mail that “although the outcome was unfortunate, I believe that the district staff and I will be able to craft a solution that is acceptable to the Board and restore funding to our Malibu schools.”

Wisnicki wrote to assure parents that “district officials said Malibu parents should not assume that the entire $27 million proposed by district staff for Malibu High is lost, because as much as $40 million in bond funds is still uncommitted.”

Several Malibu High parents spoke at the meeting at Santa Monica City Hall, but were outnumbered by placard-waving Samohi parents concerned that Malibu was getting a much larger per-student share of construction monies than their kids. Nine of the 10 board members are Santa Monica residents, although 20 percent of the students attending district schools live in Malibu.

Malibu principal Mark Kelly said he also spoke at the meeting, and said afterward he found it “unfortunate that the Samohi parents pitted one group of kids against another.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way,” Kelly said after the vote, “and the process that was set up to weigh and evaluate each project should not have been bypassed like that either.”

At issue is a proposal from district staff that $27 million be set aside for a new library at Malibu High, as well as a new science classroom wing to replace a substandard 40-year-old junior high classroom block. The board’s vote eliminated funding for the junior high classrooms.

Assistant Superintendent Mike Matthews, a former Malibu High principal, said the bond funding process has only just begun. “I want to assure Malibu residents that it is our goal and objective to get what is needed built at both of the schools.”

Matthews said district staff is only taking the first steps in finding joint-funding sources from other government agencies to subsidize multiple-use projects at both campuses, which he said will stretch construction budgets and further the district’s goal of integrating the two high schools more with surrounding communities.

The February vote will, if approved, combine two prior parcel taxes, Measure S and Measure Y, into one new tax, which has not been given a ballot designation yet. Like the prior taxes, property owners over 65 can choose to opt out of the tax (see separate story) by filing annually for an exemption.

Clock Stops on NorthernStar Plan to Convert Aging Oil Rig Northwest of Malibu into LNG Facility

• U.S. Coast Guard Raises Hundreds of Safety and Environmental Issues that Must Be Addressed

BY HANS LAETZ

A proposal for a liquefied natural gas terminal on a converted offshore oil rig off Ventura County has prompted nearly 400 questions from the U.S. Coast Guard, a “data gap” that could delay the project for months or years.

The Malibu Surfside News has learned that Coast Guard officials have questions about the proposed NorthernStar LNG terminal that go to the very heart of the proposal’s safety and operations plans, as well as whether it is even needed in the first place.

The Coast Guard has sent the company a list of 396 questions it needs answered before it can process the environmental study, and then decide on a license request, for the project called Clearwater Port. Similar questions cost BHP Billiton a three-year delay on its Cabrillo Port request, and that company’s inability to fully address its data gap list of just 120 questions was one of the reasons its proposed LNG terminal off Malibu was shot down last April.

In a letter obtained by The News, hundreds of questions were raised by the Coast Guard about safety aspects of the NorthernStar proposed project, ranging from how the LNG terminal would handle earthquakes, subsea landslides and high waves, to how the LNG ships would avoid killing whales.

The company had said it expected some questions to arise, and its officials said they expected the fast-track federal licensing “clock” to be stopped at some point. But the breadth and scope of the list of unanswered questions seemed quite broad even to LNG opponents, such as Susan Jordan of the California Coastal Protection Network.

“I’m stunned,” Jordan said when told of the list. She and other coastal activists have yet to see the letter’s details.

Kira Redmond, spokesperson for the Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, said the “long-term and potentially devastating impacts” of the proposal makes her group “gratified the Coast Guard has taken our concerns and others seriously, and stopped the clock to gather additional information.”

The SBC, an environmental group that champions environmental issues in the Channel Islands area, announced that it has hired the Environmental Defense Center, which played a major part in the defeat of Cabrillo Port, to employ scientists and environmental lawyers to oppose the project.

NorthernStar proposes to take out oil wells on the offshore rig and use the platform to warm up LNG that would be unloaded at two new floating docks it would build in 320 feet of water about 10 miles off Ventura. The oil rig’s wells would be taken out of production, abandoning about 2 million barrels of recoverable oil in the ground beneath it—one of the issues the Coast Guard wants NorthernStar to address.

As reported in The News three weeks ago, federal law prohibits taking an offshore oil platform out of production if petroleum can still profitably be recovered. With oil prices ratcheting up above $90 a barrel, the small oil company that currently owns the rig has resumed drilling for oil on the platform, known as Platform Grace, that NorthernStar wants to turn into an LNG regasification site.

The federal letter is a laundry list of concerns, most of them about the safety of the plan. The list notes that NorthernStar’s data about freighter traffic in the local area, one of the busiest sea lanes in the world, is more than five years old and out of date. It also notes that NorthernStar mistakenly said ships in the nearby coastal lanes are under Coast Guard traffic control, when they are not.

Some of the Coast Guard questions go to the very concept of locating an LNG terminal at a place where ships could drag their anchors across existing seafloor pipelines that carry crude oil from several platforms to refineries onshore. And it says the anchoring systems for floating docks in the high seas, with cables bolted to the ocean floor amidst crude oil and natural gas pipelines, need further explanations.

The federal letter asks why NorthernStar has not addressed two active earthquake faults reported in a 2007 geologic study, even though the federal government asked NorthernStar about them last February.

The Coast Guard letter notes that “the application lacks a list or map describing land uses along the proposed and alternative project locations, and information about sensitive land uses and their locations, particularly churches, schools, hospitals, day-care centers, etc.” Because the project proposes high-pressure gas pipelines through Oxnard neighborhoods, the government wants to know precisely how many structures would be in the hazard zone.

NorthernStar’s project manager, Billy Owens, said the questions “do not go to the soundness, but to the necessary detail to ensure that one understands the environmental protections that we will build into the plant.”

Owens said many of the posed questions are answered in other parts of the 3141-page application filed by the company last summer. Others, however, he said might take months of additional research, testing and study to answer.

Item 400, for example, asks the company to “demonstrate the need for natural gas (particularly LNG) as an energy source, providing information on the supply of, and demand for natural gas in California.” The Coast Guard asks NorthernStar to show why the new Costa Azul import terminal near Tijuana, with a capacity equal to one-tenth of the total demand on the west coast of North America, can’t handle import needs.

“That will probably be the biggest piece of work we have to do,” Owens said. “That is a critical task item that everyone is yelling about.”

Opponents of the project say the severe environmental impacts of the proposed oil rig conversion outweigh the benefits for what could become an expensive, underused competitor to the Baja LNG terminal, owned by the San Diego natural gas trading firm Sempra, parent company of the Southern California Gas Company.

The Coast Guard also wants to know how NorthernStar computed potential fog banks that might be generated by the operation of the ambient air vaporizers, which will act like huge refrigerator coils in moist marine air.

“We are hardly going to see any fog out there from this project,” Owens said. In perfectly still air, he said water vapor would cascade off the platform and form a circle of fog 6-8 feet above the water and 65-70 feet in diameter.

“We’re not going to enshroud the platform and the carriers in fog,” he vowed.

Among other questions, the Coast Guard wants to know:
• what the converted oil rig will look like to persons on nearby boats and on the shore,
• how tall the facility will be,
• how much smog will be generated, and how that was calculated.
• why this oil rig was picked, and why the project wouldn’t be better in another location,
• whether the high-pressure gas pipelines can withstand underwater landslides and river-flood rocks sweeping down from the nearby mouth of the Santa Clara River,
• what the effect of supercold water on plankton and other creatures will be, a subject brought up but not addressed in earlier letters,
• what the emergency response plan for pipeline leaks on shore will be,
• why no substantive risk assessment discussion for the onshore pipeline was provided,
• why there is no discussion of potential safety hazards for introducing the imported gas directly into the existing natural gas system,
• why the application does not address the impact on tourism, and
• what the historical wave heights at the site are.

Owens said it could be two-to-three weeks before the company “gets a handle on just how deep they want us to go on all this.”

The NorthernStar proposal, 35 miles northwest of Malibu, is one of two LNG terminals proposed for the local area. A second, proposed by Woodside Natural Gas for 21.8 miles offshore Point Dume, is proceeding through the regulatory process several weeks behind the NorthernStar plan.

Black Sunday in Malibu: Flames from Canyon Fire Break the Dawn

• Powerful and Erratic Winds Dictate Where and When of 4400-Acre Blaze

BY HANS LAETZ

Malibu dodged yet another bullet as 4400 acres of canyons and mountains from Puerco Canyon east to Las Flores Canyon burned this week, destroying just six houses and two landmarks, but filling the world’s television screens with yet another Malibu disaster.

The Canyon Fire will be remembered, perhaps, for showing that lessons have been learned from past conflagrations. Brush clearance, improved fire-safe building techniques and—most importantly—an aggressive deployment of firefighters saved the city, officials said.

Three firefighters suffered heat injuries, and the city was locked down under evacuation orders with school closures for half a week.

The first crew to arrive at the ignition point near the Malibu Canyon tunnel said high voltage lines had failed, sparking the blaze in 80 mile-per-hour, hurricane-force winds. The fire was already spreading east towards Rindge Dam and south toward Pepperdine University when the first crew rolled up at 4:55 a.m. Sunday.

The firestorm caught the city sleeping, the roads empty, and the conditions perfect for a conflagration as fire lashed down Malibu Creek on the east side of the road, and on its west side crossed two ridges to reach the Malibu Civic Center area within three hours of ignition.

A steep gully running down from the Hughes Research Laboratories into Winter Canyon carried the fire like an crucible—“flames were spilling down that arroyo like molten metal,” one firefighter said. That ignited the Malibu Presbyterian Church, the Malibu Glass and Mirror business and a house on Harbor View Drive.

The fire then spread sideways along the base of the hill just north of City Hall, and television pictures from overhead showed it turn back up the hill and engulf Castle Kashan, the faux palace owned by New York socialite Lilly Lawrence that towered for 30 years over Malibu’s heart.

Fingers of the fire branched off and around buildings, then reconnected as they blasted across Pacific Coast Highway towards Malibu Colony. Patches of burning trees and brush swirled around nearly all the buildings within sight of Legacy Park.

City Hall was spared, but trees and the old greenhouses ignited around it, cutting power to the emergency center there.

Fire Captain Anthony Iacono’s engine was rolling in from Hawthorne past the pier and was dispatched to protect condominiums on Vista Pacifica Street, just off Civic Center Way.

“One guy ran down the driveway and said ‘my house is burning.’ so we put it out,” he said.

The fire had wrapped around Webster Elementary School and brush was aflame in all directions. “We couldn’t leave anyone there—they needed us at Carbon Canyon—so we took some thermal pictures, wet the whole thing down, and took off,” Iacono said.

By 10 a.m. Sunday, trees at the Colony Village Shopping Center had flashed over with flame, and only a heavy contingent of firefighters on the roof saved the Bank of America, CVS Pharmacy, and Ralph’s Supermarket from succumbing to the numerous spot fires popping up atop the fancy strip mall.

Soon, Ralph’s reopened, but at first only for firefighters. A running tab was adding up on the one register operating.

CVS was closed, and would also stay so for two days. A hollow clock tower tilted at a crazy angle, but firefighters said damage was limited to non-structural elements of the main buildings.

Incident Commander John Tripp said the fire had originally been expected to veer west after it hit the Pacific.

“Our original contingency was that this fire would burn to the west all the way to Ventura County,” Tripp said. “Think about all the people and houses there.

“The winds instead blew it to the east today. If they change tonight, it could be just that bad.”

But the fire’s westward momentum was stopped by bulldozers and handcrews working above Puerco Canyon. Its eastern flank, however, found fuel and winds and pushed around the northern side of Serra Estates Sunday, burning brush under the canopy of trees as far south as the one-lane bridge across Malibu Creek.

There, crews from several City of Los Angeles fire engines sent up from the Miracle Mile district used shovels and hoses to protect structures. None burned, and the wooden bridge was saved.

One mile south, two Baywatch boats kept a steady stream of salt water on the undersides of the venerable Malibu Pier as sparks and brands landed on top. State Parks Department fire trucks sat at Adamson House to protect that local icon.

In between them, two surfers tried the waves at Surfrider, which were blowing back in the gale. One of them secured instant TV fame by proclaiming “it’s too smoky to surf today” through his bandanna.

The fire moved east across Sweetwater Mesa, burning down to the McDonald’s restaurant, the Jakk’s Pacific Building and several apartment houses on Pacific Coast Highway. By 3 p.m. Monday, it had divided: north around Carbon Mesa, south along PCH towards Fire Station 70.

Flames laid down overnight, but just before sunrise Monday came roaring back. The northern flank pushed south down Carbon Canyon, going up a small rise to take out a historic house just uphill from the fire station.

Winds were blowing into the canyon from the northeast at 60 miles per hour, firefighters said, causing a vortex of wind to push the fire in the opposite direction, up to Rambla Pacifico. Worries about houses being cut off by the decade-long landslide road closure gave way to a slow moving fire, engines in every driveway, and calm as flames made their way uphill and around houses.

One Rambla family lost a Prius and a Mercedes in a garage as a momentary firestorm swirled. But the firetruck and crew stationed in the driveway saved the house.

Shortly after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s photo op at the Civic Center Monday morning, a massive blossom of fire suddenly developed at the top of Carbon Canyon, crossing Piuma Road north toward the Saddle Peak radio towers. The mountain looked volcano-like as smoke spewed thousands of feet into the air.

“The winds were blowing south up against that mountain top, and that stopped the fire from burning over to Calabasas,” said county fire spokesperson Kurt Schaefer.

By Monday night, activity concentrated around houses northwest of Los Flores Canyon, which were saved. Nearly 1800 firefighters were assigned to Malibu, prompting grumbling in inland areas where some people told reporters Malibu was getting more than its share of state resources.

“Those people are wrong,” said Los Angeles County fire chief P. Michael Freeman. “It’s not just who has the biggest mouth gets all the resources.”

Freeman said the Malibu fire broke out a full day before destructive brushfires erupted elsewhere in the county. “We have been here before and we know what fire in this area can do,” Freeman said. “We never hold things in reserve, that would be wasteful.”

The chief said he had 1200 firefighters in Malibu Sunday afternoon, and immediately shifted 400 of them to Santa Clarita as fires there broke out and exploded into houses. “The requests for crews up north were filled as they came in.”

By Tuesday morning, arriving crews from the San Francisco Bay Area had replaced Los Angeles County firefighters, who had moved east and north to new blazes.

Residents were thankful for the firefighting efforts by the weary men and women, sleepless and haggard after two straight days in the desert winds.

Gasoline and ice cream bars were sold out at Trancas by Monday night, and the sole grocery store still open in the city was running low on sushi, chips and less expensive brands of beer.

“That’s Malibu, they can’t cook but they sure know how to watch fires on TV,” marveled Kathy Ruddell, night manager at HOWS Trancas Market.

Some Pepperdine students were stranded at the PCH/Kanan-Dume signal late Monday, unable to get to their dorms. A CHP officer, not much older than the students, directed them to the Malibu High School Red Cross center.

In the school’s gym, 200 bone-weary and sweat-soaked inmate camp crew workers slept soundly on the wooden floor, lying atop blankets as the mercury hit 85 degrees at 11 p.m.

Some firefighters, however, were able to shower or sleep in the swanky new remodeled rooms at Malibu Beach Inn, where owner David Geffen threw open the doors to public service workers.

The scene Tuesday morning was dramatically different, with no smoke visible anywhere along the six-mile-wide fire. Firefighters shifted to mop-up mode, helicopters were parked to await flare-ups, and damage assessments began at the Civic Center.

Fire staffing at Malibu was cut to 898, with the remainder sent to San Diego or the Lake Arrowhead area, and full containment was predicted for the Canyon Fire on Friday.

Public facilities were not significantly damaged, Webster Elementary School appeared hardest hit, as principal Phil Cott stood next to a row of charred palm trees Tuesday.

“These big palm trees might fall now, might need to be cut down, or maybe they’re OK here and will grow back,” Cott said. “We have a lot of painting to do, and one teacher is going to have to move her classroom.

A modular classroom that housed a 45-station computer lab, and another holding a teacher preparation area, were lost to fire at Our Lady of Malibu parochial school in Winter Canyon, the school announced Tuesday night.

The two buildings are partially insured, and reconstruction will begin Thursday, said co-principal Susan Richey.

She said flames “burned right up to the classrooms on campus that have been there 47 years, but they weren’t touched.

“But it took out the trailers that were behind the school, that housed the computer lab.”

The school will remain closed until at least next Monday.

Across the street, Webster Elementary will also remain closed through Monday. All other public schools in Malibu resumed classes on Wednesday.

Loss of Charter Cable Link Exacerbated Crisis Conditions for Malibu

• City Officials Decry Lack of Backup Equipment for TV, Internet and Phone Services

BY HANS LAETZ

Charter Cable customers were disconnected from the e-world Sunday, when the only Charter line to the outside world burned at Bluffs Park, taking out that company’s vital cable television, Internet and telephone service during the fire emergency.

Compounding the problem, Charter could not begin repairing individual connections anywhere in Malibu until the connections to the company’s technical center in Monterey Park were restored, which was supposed to happen Tuesday night.

Some angry customers, including Malibu’s mayor pro tem, said they wanted to know why a crucial communications link did not have a backup, and why it was placed over a mesa where predictable Malibu catastrophes often sever utility lines.

City officials expressed surprise that Charter had removed local television reception equipment from Malibu, and transferred all local technical operations to a facility 40 miles away, connected only by a single fiber connection hanging above miles of disaster-vulnerable Pacific Coast Highway.

“That’s incredible, that’s unacceptable,” said Malibu mayor pro tem Pamela Conley Ulich, whose home Internet and e-mail service was dead. “I’m surprised they don’t have alternate lines, and I’m disappointed.”

The failure of the entire system left people in the city in varying degrees of electronic nonexistence. Most affected are persons who switched their landline telephone service to a cable-internet-telephone bundle, and lost all three services.

Ninety percent of Charter’s Malibu customers, and all of them in Topanga Canyon, were affected. A relative handful of Malibu Charter customers were able to see local television via a jury-rigged antenna system that could not be extended citywide, said Charter vice president Craig Watson.

Service went out Sunday morning when the firm lost 4000 feet of fiber optic cable in the Canyon Fire’s first hour.

Watson said his crews were staging equipment and personnel in Malibu Monday, but could not begin to restring the key link until Southern California Edison crews finished replacing poles across the mesa between Bluffs Park and the Ralph’s supermarket.

But Edison elected to abandon that reach of power poles Tuesday morning, Watson said. At first light Tuesday, Charter crews began drilling new pole holes and getting ready to plug Malibu back into the worldwide grid.

Fiber junctions must be spliced, a delicate and time-consuming operation involving technicians working with microscopes, he said.

From the beginning of cable TV service until a few months ago, Malibu residents received cable television signals from a “head-end” at the north end of Latigo Canyon Road. But the company, as it upgraded to an all-digital system that can handle advanced internet and telephone services, removed all the TV reception gear in Malibu and placed it at an operations center in Monterey Park, 10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

“This was done so we could provide our customers with a centralized, professionally-staffed service center,” Watson said. “All television signals, as well as the controls and signals for Internet and telephones, now come from our operations center in Monterey Park.”

The company has acknowledged that it needed a backup connection in case the path to Monterey Park failed anywhere along the 50-mile route.

“Ironically, we have a signed contract in hand right now to provide a second link in to Malibu,” Watson said. The fire, however, hit before that backup fiber optic could be patched into to the new system.

In western Malibu, far away from the fire front and blocked by mountains from over-the-air local television, worried people went to neighbors with satellite dishes to see pictures of the fire and learn what was happening.

Verizon landline phone and Internet service interruptions were limited to places where equipment burned, a spokesperson said, and cellular phone service from various providers was not disrupted along the length of Malibu. Satellite TV reception, and off-air reception in the few areas that have it were unaffected by the fire.

Although some areas of Malibu sporadically lost electric service due to the windstorm, most of the city had continuous service during the emergency.

Water service from Los Angeles County Water District 29 was not interrupted during the fires or winds. Crews worked day and night to make sure that booster stations, hydrants and other key links were functioning normally.

Watson, whose company is in the midst of a campaign to win converts to its packaged phone and internet services, said the loss of service in Malibu was “particularly painful.”

“We understand that we are not just in the cable business anymore and, because of that we understand that our customers are reliant on our service,” Watson said.

Large Crowd at Malibu Post-Fire Forum Heaps Praise on Firefighters

• Residents Are Critical of Collapse of Key Cable Provider and Its Impact on Information

BY HANS LAETZ

It was hard to find a happier crowd than the 300 Malibu residents in Malibu High School’s auditorium Tuesday night, when Los Angeles County firefighters were repeatedly interrupted with applause as they answered questions about the Canyon Fire from Malibuites.

But the happiness and gratitude instantly evaporated when the subject turned to Charter Communications, whose representatives were raked over the coals by residents who said they were furious over telephone, cable TV and Internet outages.

Fire Commander John Tripp got a standing ovation after announcing that fire lines had been extended around 75 percent of the fire as of 6 p.m. Tuesday, and that Pacific Coast Highway had been reopened at the same time.

“Today we woke up and saw no smoke, not one wisp. That was good news,” he said, as this fire’s peculiar pattern Monday and Tuesday of spreading slowly into the approaching winds meant that it consumed all of the available fuel.

“We thought it would be several days before we would be at this point,” he said.

Tripp said hotspots in the 4400 acres of rugged, burned terrain may remain, and could reignite over the next few days. A helicopter equipped with an infrared camera was to begin low-altitude flights over the burned zone, and line crews and other resources will be sent into the mountains for mop-up.

“For the next few days we’re going to keep resources here, you are going to see resources, we’re going to be your neighbor,” he said.

The incident commander walked residents through the first hours of the fire, and praised people in the Civic Center and Malibu Knolls area for instantly getting out of bed and following orders to evacuate. “That saved lives, and we had the potential to lose a lot of lives.

“4:55 a.m. is absolutely the worst time to have a fire in Malibu. The very first thing I had to deal with was a bunch of people startled awake, and following a sheriff down the hill.”

Lost Hills Sheriff’s Captain Tom Martin thanked residents for obeying road closures and mandatory evacuations. “Driving through this fire was one of the scariest things I had ever done,” he said.

The officer thanked Malibu horse owners for acting quickly to evacuate more than 100 horses from Malibu ranches before the roads clogged with incoming fire engines.

“I want to encourage everyone who has a business on PCH to go and make sure you are secure,” Martin said. “We are going to have roving patrols, but there are a few places where the fire department had to smash windows to go in and check things, and we don’t want any looting.”

But as happy as residents were with public safety agencies, they were chomping at the bit to tear into Charter’s new vice president for Southern California, Fred Lutz, who stepped up with apologies and promises to do better.

“When are we going to get the channels back on?” yelled one little boy as the meeting began.

“We want to know how we get information when the cable is out,” yelled a woman.

“You can’t have a neighborhood phone tree unless you have information to give out,” shouted another.

“Forget about Charter, we need to have an emergency backup system,” said a third.

Lutz acknowledged shortcomings with the system, asked for patience, and promised citywide “service will be restored by [Wednesday] at 6 a.m.”

County Supervisors Air Issues at Hearing on Proposed LCP for Santa Monica Mountains

• Session Is Continued for Another Week to Hear More Testimony

BY BILL KOENEKER

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors took up consideration of the proposed Local Coastal Program for unincorporated areas of Malibu and the rest of the Santa Monica Mountains at its meeting this week on Tuesday.

The board took no action, but rather listened to a staff report on the document, heard public testimony and continued the matter until Oct. 30 when it is expected the supervisors will take action.

The county’s regional planning commission had previously recommended approval of the LCP.

Eleventh hour opposition came from the civic group, Citizens for a Better LCP, which objected to what it called the “commercialization of horse boarding” in the Santa Monicas that they contend would be allowed under the LCP.

“The proposed LCP actively encourages landowners to keep eight horses per acre. This is an unacceptably high number. Areas where livestock are maintained are typically denuded of all vegetation,” said Jacky de Haviland, who is the president of the group, and acknowledged during an interview that she and others found out much later about the LCP process after the planning commission recommended approval.

“We just did not know about it,” responded de Haviland, who said she and her group had spearheaded an effort to let other environmental groups know about what she considers the objectionable aspects of what she calls “backyard boarding.”

“I am not against equestrian use in the mountains. But this commercial use threatens the ecosystem,” she added.

De Haviland said she believed the ads placed in local media last week might have had an impact on county officials.

Equestrians early on had wanted the county to incorporate and consider in its policies in the LCP the historic significance of equestrian uses in the local mountain range.

Members of Citizens for a Better LCP urged the board to eliminate language that allows the boarding of horses not specifically owned by the landowner.

The group insisted they are not a one-issue organization and also take exception to what they called the “creeping commercialization” that they say is encouraged by the LCP in the form of visitor-serving uses.

“ I can’t understand how having a 40-room bed and breakfast in the Santa Monica Mountains helps protect the mountains. It will bring more traffic, more people and more pollution,” de Haviland said.

The board, before it met, agreed to continue the matter to allow those who could not attend this week due to the area wildfires to testify at the later date.

After the hearing is closed, supervisors can choose to direct the planning staff to make minor changes to the LCP, or, if the board decides that substantial changes concerning issues that were not considered by the planning commission are needed, the document could be returned to the panel for further discussion, according to county officials.

When the board adopts the LCP, it will be submitted to the California Coastal Commission for its review. The coastal panel will hold a public hearing and also accept additional testimony.

If the commission recommends modifications to the LCP, the supervisors will decide whether and how it should be amended to incorporate the coastal panel’s recommendations. If the board makes the changes recommended by the state agency, the LCP will be certified and the county will then take on the permitting authority.

Malibu: The Canyon Fire: Day Two

HEADLINE UPDATE

Fire is burning across the northern edge of La Costa, where 225 houses burned in 1993. Structure protection there. No losses yet.

Fire now at 2400 acres. 10 percent containment.

Flames seen atop Saddle Peak, just south of the communications towers. Fire is moving east at low speed.

Destroyed: 5 houses, the church and the glass and mirror business.
Damaged: 9 houses, 5 businesses.

Kanan Dume Road is open, contrary to radio reports.

Voluntary evacuations now called for Sunset Mesa.

$1.2 million in firefighting costs so far.

One firefighter injured-heat exhaustion-yesterday.

Fire is burning up west side of Rambla Pacifico.

One garage (with a Prius in it) burned on the west side of Rambla Pacifico between Hume and Las Flores Canyon Road (Camp 8).

Fire has crossed Rambla Pacifico in several places, but is burning into the wind, very slowly in most cases.

County Fire Chief Michael Freeman says Malibu did not get more than its fair share of resources, despite anger from Santa Clarita residents that engines were shifted here that could have been kept in reserve there.

PCH is likely to be closed at least through tomorrow, making school openings unlikely.

The big worry for Monday night: winds will shift and blow from the northeast and east, possibly causing fire to spread west into Puerco and Latigo canyons.

City is promising to remove blown-over trees on Guernsey and other Malibu Park streets today.

Governor came to Malibu at 11 a.m. for a briefing and photo op.

—Hans Laetz

Malibu Fire Photos

7:10 a.m.—Malibu Canyon Road. A camp crew tries to start a firebreak, about 1/4 mile north of the Malibu Castle. Within minutes, the crew realized the fire, which was moving fast to the south on either side of the road, had outflanked them. The crew pulled out shortly afterward. MSN Photos/Hans Laetz

11:20 a.m.—As fire races south down Malibu Creek, state fire trucks took up positions surrounding the Adamson House at Malibu Lagoon. Two county Baywatch boats sprayed the wooden Malibu Pier all morning, in case any brands or sparks landed on it.

12:55 p.m.—Fire burns down to apartment buildings just east of the Malibu Pier.

12:58 p.m.—Two Orange County firefighters watch the L.A. County Skycrane check flames just north of apartment buildings on PCH.

1:40 p.m.—Firefighters arriving at the top of Carbon Mesa assess the situation as fire burns down the southeast flank of the fire.

3:05 p.m.—As fire hooks around from the north into the upper reaches of Carbon Mesa, firefighters light backfires to deprive the fire of fuel.

4:10 p.m.—Movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg's home on Carbon Beach was covered in fire protection foam, presumably at his request.

6:40 p.m.—Wreckage of a car, apparently a Jaguar, abandoned and burned on an eerily empty Pacific Coast Highway. Beyond, hundreds of firefighters and dozens of fire trucks at the assembly point on Civic Center Way.

7:00 p.m.—Molten aluminum that once was expensive windows oozes down a hillside in front of what used to be the Malibu Glass & Mirror business in Winter Canyon, just north of Webster Elementary School.
7:05 p.m.— The north side of Webster Elementary School suffered damage in the fire at about 10 a.m. No classrooms or other permanent structures were burned at Webster or Our Lady of Malibu Catholic Church and school.

7:30 p.m.—Fire bosses explain the night's plan in front of a map of Malibu's Canyon Fire. The fire area outlined in red is not contained; the boundary in black shows containment areas along Piuma Road near Saddle Peak, and along Pacific Coast Highway. All the other fire lines were uncontained as of 6 p.m.

MALIBU: The Canyon Fire: Oct. 21, 2007

SUNDAY NIGHT HEADLINE UPDATE

No one hurt or killed.
Five houses burned.
1200 acres burned by 7 p.m.

Two commercial structures lost: the Malibu Presbyterian Church and the Malibu Glass and Mirror business on Winter Canyon Road.

Webster Elementary School was singed—storage and garden facilities on the northern edge were lost, but the school was saved.

Our Lady of Malibu Catholic Church and School scorched but no serious damage.
Ralph’s Supermarket not damaged— freezers and coolers not affected. But the store is open to firefighters and police only.

CVS Pharmacy not damaged but closed.

Businesses in Malibu Colony Shopping Center not seriously damaged, but numerous spot fires broke out in landscaping and building facades, and on roofs. Some trees in the parking lot blew over before the fire crews arrived.

Malibu Schools will be closed Monday.

Malibu High School evacuation center is open but unused.

PCH closed to all but Malibu residents westbound at Topanga Canyon.

PCH hard closed eastbound at Kanan Dume, but some people are getting through.

Kanan Dume Road open and unimpeded.

Malibu Canyon Road open to utility crews only.

No fire at or near Monte Nido.

The fire lines on Saddle Peak also held.

There are virtually no fire lines to the west or toward Puerco Canyon. There are no fire lines to the east either.

Spot fires are still being put out near Malibu City Hall, Winter Canyon, and Hughes Labs.

Evacuations are reportedly in progress in Topanga Canyon’s southern neighborhoods.

Most vacant land in the Civic Center area burned. Most structures did not.
The County Fire Department will not release the addresses of burned structures. It is believed that two burned on Malibu Road, two burned on Malibu Crest—one of them the Malibu Castle (Castle Kashan). One house may have burned in the Malibu Creek area, but that is not confirmed.

Malibu Tow emerged unburned, except for six crashed vehicles in the impound yard.

Adamson House not touched. Baywatch boats wet the Malibu Pier down.

One thousand hot meals and two thousand sack lunches were distributed tonight.

Crews are being told no relief is on the way, and to grab naps in their trucks if possible. Ten other major incidents in Southern California mean no more resources will be sent to Malibu tonight.

Sheriff’s deputies are guarding two banks and the Malibu Castle “in case anyone gets any ideas,” a sheriff’s commander says.

The Canyon Fire: Sunday Night Update

By Hans Laetz

For Malibu residents, the 2007 Canyon Fire was a familiar crisis, but different. The fire caught Malibu residents largely at home, before dawn on a weekend; meaning roads were open and clear from the beginning.

That meant fire trucks had an open set of roadways as they streamed into Malibu Sunday morning.

The day began for many residents at about 1 a.m., when the predicted Santa Ana winds arrived. Those who ventured outside smelled smoke—but it was from a fire 40 miles north, near Castaic.

Winds at Point Mugu were clocked above 50 miles per hour as the night went on, and eventually reached 108 miles per hour at one mountaintop station in Ventura County.

The fire was sparked at 4:50 a.m. Sunday, when a power pole on Malibu Canyon Road dropped its 14,000-volt lines just northwest of the old Sheriff’s Honor Rancho turnoff. Crews from the first truck to arrive singled out the failed power line as the source of the fire, but an official investigation will follow.

By 7 a.m., fire had spread in two prongs: east down the side of Malibu Canyon as far as the northern edge of Serra Estates, and west over two ridge-tops toward Pepperdine University and Hughes Research Labs.

At 7:20, a firefighter warned this reporter that the power lines he was standing under, watching the fire in Malibu Canyon just north of HRL, were liable to topple. They did, about a half hour later.

At 8:40, the western prong of the fire had topped the ridge above Pepperdine, and was burning down the eastern fringe of the campus. Another tongue of fast-moving fire funneled down a steep arroyo, across Malibu Canyon Road and into Winter Canyon.

That fire quickly engulfed Malibu Presbyterian Church, which was fully in flames less than five minutes after the first flames began licking at it.

A few minutes later, the northern edge of Webster Elementary School was aflame. Fire trucks streaming up Winter Canyon concentrated on the school, the adjacent Our Lady of Malibu Catholic Church, and the major electrical substation and switching yard in the canyon.

At 9, the landscaping at Malibu Colony Shopping Center was ablaze.
By midday, the fire had stopped spreading to the east. Serra Retreat was smoldering, but few structures were burned. All of the underbrush north of the one-lane bridge was burned, right up to structures. Los Angeles City firefighters were working with shovels to save houses near the Retreat.

At 2 p.m., the fire had burned to the east behind Serra Estates and over Sweetwater Mesa. Fire trucks saved the office buildings, stores and apartments on the north side of Pacific Coast Highway as the fire edged east behind McDonald’s and PC Greens.

To the north, the fire was raging unchecked through the rugged canyons and backcountry. The eastward spread put the 40 or so houses on the dead-end loop of Carbon Mesa in the fire’s target.

Heavy use of fire helicopters, and slackening winds, put the fire out on its southern march towards the signal at Carbon Canyon Road. North of the mesa, the fire went up a canyon to the northeast, then reversed itself and came up a ridge.

Homes there were saved by firefighters who lit backfires, robbing the fire of its fuel.

By 6 p.m. there were scant pockets of smoke rising from the fire area. Winds were slack as well. But the winds were kicking up again, as they often do right at sunset.

At 6:15 p.m., helicopters had to return to the fire’s origin point, near the Malibu Canyon tunnel. The resurgent wind had whipped embers into a wall of flame in the bramble of brush just above the old Rindge Dam.

Once again, the potential for disaster had shifted to the west.

The fire boss—at 7 p.m.—warns: “Our original contingency was that this fire would burn to the west all the way to Ventura County. Think about all the people and houses there.

“The winds instead blew it to the east today. If they change tonight, it could be just that bad.

Firefighters were told tonight there are 10 major fires in Southern California and no more resources are coming to Malibu.

State Agency Targets Illegal Signs and Encroachments in Malibu

• Coastal Commission Enforcement Takes Aim at Counterfeit ‘No Parking’ Postings

BY HANS LAETZ

A regional Coastal Commission enforcement official says Malibu residents who have put up their own, official-looking “No Parking” signs may expect enforcement action soon. And one of the biggest offenders may be the City of Malibu itself.

Pat Veesart, senior enforcement team leader a the Coastal Commission’s Ventura office, said his office received numerous complaints last summer from people about a growing rash of ‘No Parking’ signs at several Malibu public access points, including Lechusa, Broad, Little Dume, Escondido and Latigo beaches.

An even bigger problem may be the wholesale taking of public streets for landscaping, walls or private parking places in some areas, he said. “Public land has been absconded with by private property owners.”

Some of the worst abuses may be along the west end of Broad Beach Drive, near where the state has obtained easements to allow public foot access to Lechusa Beach, but where on-street parking has been eliminated over the decades by resident encroachment, Veesart said.

Volunteer surveyors have measured the public right of way on Broad Beach Road and found trees, mailboxes, private driveways and stairways encroaching onto public property. The situation, Veesart said, is particularly bad west of Bunnie Drive, where the public road suddenly narrows even though the right-of-way line does not.

“These are the only parking places available to access the beach that the people of the State of California paid a lot to acquire,” he said Friday, as he looked at rock walls and other permanent structures that extended at least 15 feet over the right of way line and onto Broad Beach Road, a former state highway with a broad right of way.

“All along Broad Beach Road there are a lot of parking places that look private,” said Jenny Price, a Los Angeles resident who frequently uses Malibu beaches, accessways and parks. Price runs an advocacy group called LA Urban Rangers that offers tours of publicly-owned areas along the Malibu coast, places that some oceanfront homeowners consider their own.

Last Friday, Veesart showed the Malibu Surfside News more than a dozen homes along Broad Beach Road where walls intruded onto the public road, and where landscaping or pavement was used to make a public parking place look like private property.

“If you park here, the homeowner will come out and tell you ‘you’re on private property,’ and because it looks like it, a deputy would reasonably cite you or tow your car away,” he said.

Veesart said no one at the commission has any problem with what he called “no harm, no foul” landscaping, walls or staircases on the side of the road, unless they block potential parking or convey a message that a piece of road that the State of California bought in 1931 from the Rindge family has become private.

The enforcement official said he plans to meet soon with City of Malibu officials over official-looking “No Parking” signs set up all over the western end of Malibu. He said he is particularly concerned about several new signs banning parking near Geoffrey’s Restaurant that were not posted by the California Department of Transportation, which owns and controls Highway 1.

“These signs are right next to the Escondido accessway, and they have the effect of banning parking on the publicly-owned road shoulder. Caltrans tells me they were installed by the City of Malibu at the request of homeowners, but I don’t know who put them up.

“If they affect access to the publicly-owned beach, then a coastal development permit must be applied for, noticed and granted by the responsible city,” Veesart said, even thought the responsible agency within city limits is the City of Malibu itself.

“The implication is ‘OK, you public jerks, there are only two parking places for you here and no more,’” Price said.

Veesart said ‘No Parking’ zones near Point Dume may greatly exceed what is permissible under a nearly-10-year-old agreement that got Malibu off the hook for violating coastal access rules. Under that compromise, a small parking area was built on Cliffside Drive for surfers and flower lovers to enjoy the adjacent state park.

In exchange, the city removed boulders it had dumped on the public land to prevent parking, and was allowed to ban parking in the immediate area.

Since then, tow-away zones have extended more than a half mile on three nearby streets.

Veesart said he would contact the city to determine if the signs were officially installed, and check with commission lawyers to see if they are legal.

“I have the feeling that the majority of Malibu residents use the beach and do not favor private owners taking over public property,” Veesart said. But he said the city, like all cities along the coast, must follow the letter of the law as drawn up in the Local Coastal Plan that was adopted at the order of the state legislature.

Complications May Impact Approval Process for Area LNG Plans

• Resumption of Oil Drilling Is a Factor for One; Naval Concerns Surface on the Other

BY HANS LAETZ

In an ironic twist, a proposal for a liquefied natural gas terminal 10 miles off Oxnard may be in trouble because a local oil company has resumed drilling for crude oil from its offshore rig. Venoco, a Carpinteria-based oil company that owns several offshore oil rigs in the Santa Barbara channel, has resumed drilling for crude oil at Platform Grace.

Drilling at the offshore oil rig, 35 miles up the coast from Malibu, stopped in 1997 because much of the underlying raw crude and gas had been pumped out. But federal officials said Monday that another 2 million barrels of oil, and as much as 2 million cubic feet of natural gas, can still be recovered from beneath Platform Grace.

The recently renewed Venoco drilling may complicate NorthernStar Energy’s efforts, because of federal law that requires offshore rigs to be used only for oil extraction so long as there is commercially viable petroleum under them, a federal official said Monday.

That oil and gas would be locked up forever if the platform is converted to an LNG import terminal, a federal official said. “There will not be any consideration of simultaneous use of the platform for both oil and LNG uses,” said John Romero, a spokesperson for the U.S. Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service—the nation’s regulatory agency for offshore oil rigs.

Venoco sold an option to NorthernStar, an Orange County start-up company, four years ago to convert the nearly unused oil platform into an LNG terminal that NorthernStar calls “Clearwater Port.”

Under terms of that deal, Venoco will have to seal off its new oil wells, decommission crude oil facilities and hand the offshore oil platform over to NorthernStar when and if it gets permission for an LNG terminal from government officials. NorthernStar has applied to convert the rig to unload natural gas shipped across the ocean to add to the California energy portfolio.

NorthernStar vice president Billy Owens said Monday the resumption of drilling by Venoco might delay the project as it makes its way through various agencies, “but we don’t see this as a material delay.

“The possibility of Venoco drilling for oil while we are waiting for our permits has been contemplated since day one,” he said. “They have every right to drill until we exercise our option (to buy the platform lease), and they have the obligation to cease drilling and have the site restored the day that happens.”

Transferring Platform Grace from oil drilling duties to use as a seaborne LNG terminal has been a longstanding legal concern at the MMS division of the U.S. Interior Department, documents uncovered by the Malibu Surfside News this week indicate. And another federal official who could not be quoted said discussions between the Interior Department and the Homeland Security Department’s Coast Guard, which regulates offshore ports, have not resolved the issue yet.

NorthernStar last year asked for federal oversight of Platform Grace to be taken away from Interior’s MMS and assigned to the Deepwater Ports section under Homeland Security. Coastal advocates have criticized the Deepwater Ports office as being overly friendly to LNG interests.

Venoco’s decision to resume oil extraction was the subject of an MMS official’s letter in September 2006 to NorthernStar: “The oil and gas production will be considered the primary function of the platform, and the possibility of continuing economic recovery of the resources using these wells could delay conversion of the platform to an LNG facility,” wrote Nabil Masri.

In its most recent letter to NorthernStar, sent last month, the MMS official in charge of the agency’s West Coast office said that, despite agreements to transfer jurisdiction from MMS to the Deepwater Ports Office, the LNG terminal could still be delayed unless “Venoco proposes an alternative means to recovery of these [remaining oil and gas] resources.”

Venoco owns several nearby offshore rigs, but it is not known if they can economically extract the oil and gas that lies beneath Grace. Venoco officials would not comment last week or Monday.

Owens said NorthernStar officials learned of the renewed Venoco drilling “when we were out there a few months ago and we saw a new crane operating out there, we asked them what they were doing, and they said, ‘We are putting in a new drill.’”

The LNG project is opposed by many coastal residents, who say the 28-year-old tower in 320 feet of salt water cannot safely be converted to LNG regasification purposes. The company says the platform is rock-solid and will be vigorously inspected as the top of it is cut off and rebuilt to handle LNG, but important engineering studies are being withheld from the public as proprietary information.

Chevron built Platform Grace in 1979, and sold it to Venoco after taking 8.8 million barrels of crude oil and 22.4 million cubic feet of natural gas from the site, MMS says. Since then, the platform has been used only as a junction point for undersea oil pipelines, but has been picked by NorthernStar as the best place to reheat LNG that would be unloaded and regasified there from tankers from Asia or Russia.

WOODSIDE LNG PROJECT

The NorthernStar project off Oxnard is one of two LNG terminals near Malibu currently undergoing regulatory review. The other project, from Woodside Natural Gas, would be centered at a new buoy site 21.8 miles southwest of Point Dume.

That project, called “Ocean- Way,” came under opposition from U.S. Navy and Navy boosters last week, because it would rely heavily on a section of ocean where Navy ships frequently conduct military exercises.

Woodside proposes to use three areas of nearby ocean to transfer LNG cargoes at sea from transpacific ships to a pair of regasification vessels that would then dock at the buoys south of Malibu to regasify the LNG.

One of the three transfer points would “substantially interfere with Navy operations,” including missile tests, aviation and sea maneuvers, an official Navy statement said.

Retired Rear Admiral George Strohsahl, former commander of Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, told The News that Woodside “has proposed a transfer position that is in the Point Mugu Sea Test Range, a vital defense interest of the United States Navy.” He said he did not have an opinion on other aspects of the Woodside LNG project.

In Los Angeles, Woodside spokesperson Michael Hinrichs said discussions continue between Woodside and the Navy on the transfer point. “It’s preferable for the transfer to use the calm waters there,” he said of their preferred transfer point about 26 miles off the coast near Santa Barbara Island.

Woodside engineers have said the transfer of super-cold, hose-cracking LNG cannot occur on rough seas, which are more common at the other two points. Hinrichs noted, however, that the Navy has signed off on the proposed location for the LNG terminal itself, as well as the two stormier offshore LNG transfer points, and that negotiations on the issue continue.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard announced last week that the Woodside LNG proposal has just incurred its first delay, as a computer snafu with a federal filing system has interfered with the tightly-scheduled public comment period.

As a result, officials will accept comments from the public on environmental criteria for the Woodside request until Oct. 31.

These officials have not changed their mind, however, about not holding a hearing in Malibu, as requested by city representatives.

Malibu Planning Commission Recommends Approval of Conservancy Plans

• Critics Voicing Brushfire and Other Public Safety Concerns Are Overruled

BY BILL KOENEKER

Despite opposition from the leaders of a park docents group, neighbors and others, the City of Malibu Planning Commission last week recommended approval of a controversial parks and trails plan sought by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy that includes overnight camping in Charmlee Wilderness Park.

The plan in the form of a Local Coastal Program amendment will be heard by the city council on Nov. 13 and subsequently certified by the California Coastal Commission at a later date.

To underscore the importance of the meeting to the municipality, City Attorney Christi Hogin, who has not officiated at a planning commission meeting in several years, acted as the panel’s counsel.

SMMC executive director Joe Edmiston, in a move that was also symbolic, appeared in full ranger uniform and spoke to the planning panel.

“There is no place to own or rent property [in Malibu] not at a considerable cost. There is no place for just plain folk to look out over arguably the most beautiful vista in the country,” Edmiston said, in explaining the rationale for providing more camping in the coastal canyons.

He also talked about the initial mistrust between the city and the state agency.

“There was no question we were apprehensive, but were told there was a real advantage going through the city process. I was not a believer. I asked our attorney, ‘Are we going to be screwed?’” the Conservancy head said.

However, Edmiston said in the last six months he changed his mind and believes the ongoing treatment by the city has been “a fair and unbiased process because of the good work of the staff and the good work and will of the people on the dais tonight.”

Commissioners, who made several recommendations in approving the plans, were told there would be a total of eight campsites in Charmlee, and one of those would be an Americans with Disabilities Act camp.

There would be a total of 16 camping sites in Corral Canyon Park, and the addition of several connector trails.

The Ramirez Canyon Park improvements would include three ADA day use areas and two ADA campsites. The city staff had suggested the elimination of three sites for new hike-in camping in the meadow area, and the addition of several connector trails.

Plans also include three parking spaces in an area along the shoulder of Kanan Dume Road and a half-mile connector trail from Kanan to Ramirez Canyon Park.

There would be no overnight camping in either Solstice Canyon Park or Escondido Canyon Park, according to testimony before the planning panel.

Edmiston was grilled by the commissioners about the need for additional recreational camping facilities in the coastal area, given the proliferation of campsites in Point Mugu State Park and Leo Carrillo State Park and the tent camping sites at the Malibu Beach RV Park. Camping is also allowed in Malibu Creek State Park.

The Conservancy head was also asked how the campsites would be patrolled and about the number of rangers available to do this. Edmiston said there are 24 armed rangers that patrol the 50,000 acres administered by the SMMC and its sister agency, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority.

Almost all of the other speakers who testified before the commission were in opposition to the plan, citing the danger of fire despite being reassured that there would only be what is called “cold camping,” which is described as no campfires allowed.

Residents in other areas of Malibu were also opposed to various aspects of the plan. Steven Amerikaner, an attorney who represents the Ramirez Canyon Preservation Fund, focused on the expanded activities that are allowed by the plan for the Conservancy, which is headquartered in Ramirez Canyon Park. “Will the planning commission be a rubber stamp?” he asked.

Amerikaner also told the commissioners that the amendment sought by the SMMC is not consistent with Malibu’s Local Coastal Program. He explained that was nearly the very thing the organization had successfully litigated with the SMMC and won at the appellate level—that its coastal permit was not consistent with the LCP.

Other property owners complained about the plan, calling for more parking in Escondido area and insisted the parking lot “would pave over paradise.”

When it came time for the commissioners to deliberate, they mainly posed questions to either Edmiston or Hogin and the staff about the particulars of camping, fire dangers, parking and activities at Ramirez Canyon Park.

Chair Regan Schaar told her colleagues she thought the most productive path would be for the commissioners to talk about what they liked or did not like in the plan and make recommendations based on those assertions.

To speed the process along, the city attorney ticked off a list of recommendations she had assembled while the commissioners were asking questions and used those as a springboard for suggested revisions. The planning panelists concurred, and the changes were incorporated into the unanimous recommendation for approval.

Commissioners want to see an audit to determine if the camping uses continue to be needed incorporated into the procedure and also the requirement of a needs assessment as part of an application for a permit for both new camping and parking areas.

Panelists insisted that the plan adopt a specific definition of “cold camping” that includes requirements for the use of battery-operated lights and other technologies that do not include a flame or flammable liquid, such as kerosene, that prohibit the use of charcoal and clear definitions of permitted cooking approaches.

Additionally, the planning panelists wanted a determination as to where campsites would be located to make sure there was no adverse impacts on wildlife corridors.

Other revisions include approval of a new parking lot at Escondido only when a demand study indicates that additional parking is required and expansion of the existing lot is infeasible or inadequate; coordination of bus trips to assure no unnecessary increase in traffic on Point Dume; a requirement that park signs be in English and Spanish: and use of the most restrictive agency’s determination of “red flag” or increased fire hazard warning system; and encouragement of the construction of a road connecting Kanan Dume to Ramirez Canyon Park in connection with any increased activities in the park.

Commissioner Les Moss was the only panelist to speak at length about why he was voting for a recommendation of approval and also how the speakers on the controversial subject had influenced his vote.

He talked about his own experiences with the fire of 1978 and how residents are always fearful of fire. He said he wanted to remind the speakers that all of the panelists are longtime members of the community and their voices were not “some outside source.”

Moss also talked about the cause of the major fires that burned in Malibu and that to his knowledge none of them were started by campers. “It doesn’t appear that the fires start in the park,” he said, adding that the opponents were complaining about seven campsites in Charmlee “not 70 or 700.”

Commissioner Joan House agreed, saying a lot of the protest was based on misinformation or assertions not found in the plan. “I support what the facts are in the proposed amendment,” she added.

Commissioner Carol Randall said the concerns of the community were listened to, but that she did not believe there is a lack of support for the proposal overall throughout the community.

• The Publisher’s Notebook •

Public Policy by E-mail: Malibu Style

BY ANNE SOBLE

It isn’t always easy to roust Malibuites from their comfortable abodes to come down to City Hall to take part in the municipal political process. But if late last week and the weekend are any indication, people who are loathe to sit through what can be a stuffy discussion, will happily glom onto their computer keyboards to participate in policy discussions until their fingers are worn to stubs. The first e-mail messages started drifting our way Thursday evening, and the pace picked up as more of the almost 100 participants jumped into the fray. There was fervor, savvy and, yes, some misinformation, but such is the case at any town hall. The topic—adhered to more or less—was the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy plans for increased utilization of its holdings, especially the use of specific sites for overnight camping. On the one hand, the vast majority of Malibuites have a strong tradition of supporting public acquisition of open space. On the other, there can, on occasion, be a clinically bipolar approach to how these lands are utilized by the public that creates the types of friction that have earned Malibu a mostly unfair reputation in the outside media as xenophobic. While this may be true of a handful of beachfront dwellers, it does not apply to the community as a whole. Certainly, one can find little fault with opening areas to individuals with physical disabilities, those still saddled with the unfortunate term of handicapped. Any of us who have volunteered at community functions for adults and children with impediments of any kind will testify to the enriching, if not healing, impact of nature on those too often artificially sheltered from it. Many of them know nature only from the vantage point of a computer keyboard.

Saying this in no way downplays the sincere and very genuine concerns of those adjacent to conservancy holdings who fear a greater threat of wildfire, vandalism, traffic and other public safety problems if parklands are open overnight. Rather than conjure up demons that may never materialize, the emphasis should be on requiring safeguards to assure the safety of those who live here, as well as those who visit. The next round of e-mails will then assume a different tone.

Native American Skull Found at Malibu Construction Site

• State Native American Heritage Commission Initiates Process for Handling Find •

BY ANNE SOBLE

A human skull unearthed at a construction site in the Paradise Cove mobile home park has been officially declared a prehistoric Native American find, and the wheels have been put in motion for the remains to be handled in accord with state law.

Workers preparing the foundation for a new mobile home in the beachside complex discovered the skull during routine digging Monday at about 4 p.m. and contacted the sheriff’s department.

Capt. Ed Winter of the Operations Investigations Bureau of the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office said a “skeletal team,” including a forensics anthropologist, arrived at the scene a few hours later to study the artifact.

Winter said the discovery was not surprising because there have been a number of finds of prehistoric Native American artifacts in the Paradise Cove area.

The team’s consulting forensic anthropologist, Elizabeth Miller, a faculty member at Cal State L.A., said when she made the determination that the skull was a prehistoric artifact, that action took the matter out of the Coroner’s Office’s hands.

Miller said her analysis was based on the age of the remains, first determined visually by “its brittleness, the morphology of the face’s ethnic characteristics and the wear on the teeth.”

The anthropologist said the teeth of most California Native Americans in pre-recorded history “are worn down to little nubs” because of the “large amount of grit in their diet.”

Miller’s determination of artifact status resulted in the skull being referred to the California Native American Heritage Commission in Sacramento, which did its own analysis of authenticity and, also having determined the skull to be Native American remains, has taken over its official disposition.

Larry Myers, the executive secretary of the Native American Heritage Commission, said that a member of the Chumash people, having been declared “a most likely descendent,” has been selected to work with the property owner where the skull was found.

Myers said the commission has a policy of not making the name of the descendents public. He said it was likely that individual has already made contact with the property owner and the developer of the parcel, but additional information was not available as The News went to press.

There may be some additional legal issues in this case concerning how final arrangements for the skull will be worked out, as the land in the park is owned by the Kissel Company and leased to mobile home owners.

According to Miller, there are a number of options for ways to honor human remains of Native American ancestors. The skull is presently protected in the location where it was found until disposition has been resolved.

The skull could be buried in the spot it was found, placed somewhere else on the site and covered by construction, or it could be moved to a different location for a ceremonial ritual.

Miller said there probably will be a request to do further excavation at the site, but she added, “Most property owners do not allow this.”

Requests for additional study at locations of other archaeological finds in Malibu have been rebuffed by owners who are under no legal obligation to allow additional study on their land.

There were reports that the people constructing the foundation for a mobile home at the find site have spent a lengthy period of time on the process and were cautiously appraising this latest development.

Miller said it is against federal law to own Native American remains or artifacts, but finds can legally be covered up, and the insights they might offer into California’s prehistory could be lost.

She urged people to be careful where they dig and turn all finds over to the sheriff’s department. “Each find holds the potential to answer questions about the past.”

Blue Whale Carcass Returns to Malibu Coast

BY ANNE SOBLE

The rotting carcass of a 60-plus ton blue whale, an endangered species, was towed 20 miles out to sea after it returned to the Malibu coastline for the second time in a week.

Once again, county lifeguards moved rapidly before the rancid remains had an effect on nearby residents. If the hulk does not sink, officials may reconsider a decision not to weigh it down.

The dead whale first appeared in the Santa Barbara Channel and was brought ashore in Ventura County for a necropsy.

Scientists determined that this whale and two others were victims of ship strikes in recent weeks, prompting a call from marine environmentalists to implement a temporary speed limit in shipping lanes until the hundred or more blues now in the channel area have moved on.

A special whale alert has been issued to all seafaring vessels, but no official action has been taken on the issue of ship speeds.

Malibu Mayor Reluctantly Signs Climate Protection Agreement

BY BILL KOENEKER

A disinclined Mayor Jeff Jennings said he was signing the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection agreement at the behest of the rest of the council majority, but voted against the resolution that commits mayors to take an active role in achieving the Kyoto Protocol goals.

Signed by at least 600 mayors, the agreement commits cities to agree to apply energy-efficient sustainable building practices to building codes and land use policies, increase recycling and alternative transportation options, improve wastewater system efficiency and educate the public on ways to reduce global warming pollution.

Jennings said, during a lengthy preamble to his no vote, he was not convinced that carbon reduction would bring about the perceived needed changes.

Jennings said there is no analysis of the costs and benefits of the various schemes to reduce carbon footprints and that there is no real analysis of what the reduction projections are for the state or the country.

Councilmember Sharon Barovsky said she agreed that the agreement is largely symbolic and said that if the mayor did not want to sign the statement, then maybe it should be signed by the Mayor Pro tem Pamela Conley Ulich.

“If it turns out you are right 50 years from now, we can beat up on Pam,” added Barovsky.

Conley Ulich said she wholeheartedly endorsed the measure and agreed with Jennings that more research and development needs to be undertaken to get a handle on what many believe is the human factor of carbon emissions that is leading to climate change.

Jennings had earlier said the cost of the recommendations are in the trillions of dollars, and there is no guarantee that results would lead to a significant drop in the temperature.

“The assumption is that warming is the result of human activity. A lot of what has gone into this is not testable. I think the problem is with the assumptions. It assumes no technological change,” added the mayor.

Jennings said what he meant is akin to what happened in the 19th Century when horse drawn carriages proved to be a growing problem in the cities because of the increasing amount of manure. The analogy is that no one at the time contemplated how quickly that problem would change when the automobile was introduced.

The mayor said it might be more productive to put the money into research and development and come up with a suitable technology instead of reduction.

The protection agreement calls on the feds and state government to enact policies and programs.

The agreement calls for the federal and state governments to enact legislation to meet or beat the target of reducing global warming pollution levels to seven percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

The statement also urges Congress to enact greenhouse gas reduction laws that provide clear-cut timetables and emissions limits and a market-based system of tradable allowances among emitting industries. The agreement also calls for cities to meet or excel Kyoto Protocol targets for reducing global warming pollution by taking a laundry list of actions.

Councilmember Ken Kearsley called the mayor’s agreement a “kiss-your-sister” measure and emphasized the agreement does not urge a signing of the Kyoto Protocol.

Kearsley talked about another complaint of the mayor concerning China’s role in the agreement. “I don’t understand that China is not even [on CO2 emission goals] with the U.S,” he added.

Jennings said another problem with the resolution is that it has no way of dealing with what he called leakage.

The mayor explained that China is now responsible for 62 percent of the CO2 production which this year exceeded the U.S. emissions. “China sells to us. If we really want to look at the CO2 footprint, we need to look at our relationship with China,” he said.

The mayor stressed that “I will express the will of the council, but I wanted to get [my viewpoint] on record.”

Malibu City Council Member Rejects Call to Resign from Office

BY BILL KOENEKER

Councilmember Andy Stern brushed aside criticism about his profession as a Realtor and his involvement with a current real estate listing that has generated recent criticism that he has a conflict of interest.

In a letter to the editor, Malibu Park residents Erwin and Bonnie Schulze call on Stern to give up selling real estate if he wants to continue to serve on the city council.

“I was a real estate agent when I last ran for city council, and I was the top vote getter,” said Stern, an attorney who began selling real estate three years ago. “Do they want to set aside the will of the electorate? I don’t believe it is a sincere note.”

Stern also took issue with the description of the circumstances surrounding his having the real estate listing of a controversy-laden development in Malibu Park. “They are flat out wrong. There is nothing illegal about the house. Both the planning department and the commission approved it,” he said. Stern said he was never involved in any aspect of the decision-making process for the Malibu Park project’s building permits.

“I never voted on it. I never spoke to the planning commissioners on it,” he added.

Stern said the listing information about not being able to duplicate the house’s plans because of the city’s current building codes is true.

“I was the one that lobbied to reduce the size of basements,” he said, adding the older codes were approved by a previous council.

Stern also insisted there is no conflict of interest on his serving on the council and being a real estate agent.

“They are incorrect. Under the law [about conflict of interest] they are flat out wrong. Are they suggesting that an entire group of professionals be disenfranchised?” Stern said.

The council member noted he has recused himself on numerous votes that either might be a conflict of interest or would give the appearance of a conflict of interest.

“I recused myself and will continue to do so on the proposed point of sale ordinance, even though the city attorney told me I did not have to,” added Stern, who said he also recently recused himself from a vote on whether to establish a utility undergrounding district along Broad Beach because the district, which he would not be in, is 500 feet from his place of residence.

“Even if there is a hint of a conflict of interest, I will still recuse myself,” he said.

The council member said he is convinced, though he noted he does not know the Schulzes, that the impetus for the criticism comes from Marshall Thompson, who was outed by Stern as a contract videographer for BHP Billiton, which proposed an offshore liquefied natural gas facility overwhelmingly opposed by the community.

“He is just angry about that,” said Stern. Thompson, who said he believes everybody already knew about his work for BHP, denies that is a motivating factor in his criticism.

Illegal Marijuana ‘Farms’ Result in Major Environmental Damage to Vulnerable Environmental Areas of Parkland

BY BILL KOENEKER

A recent raid on a marijuana farm that yielded $10 million in plants in a remote section of the Santa Monica Mountains on National Park Service property points to a growing problem on public lands.

The wilderness pot farms are wrecking havoc on the environment. The labor-intensive operations now include watering systems, use of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, according to authorities.

The marijuana garden was spotted from a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. helicopter in August in upper Trancas Canyon. After several weeks of surveillance, a tactical team comprised of NPS and Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority rangers entered the location on Sept. 19, according to a NPS report.

Over 3900 marijuana plants with a street value in excess of $10 million were found at the site along with large amounts of plastic PVC irrigation hose and empty pesticide and insecticide containers.

NPS and MRCA staff, supported by additional personnel from Channel Islands and Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks, cut and piled the plants and loaded both plants and garbage into large sling bags for removal by air, according to the report.

The plants were then taken to the county landfill, under armed escort, for destruction.

The report goes on to state safety concerns in the remote area were numerous, including the possibility of armed growers still in the vicinity and their booby traps.

Resource impacts were significant, including the destruction of native vegetation in a pristine area, soil disturbance that promotes invasive weeds, residual effects from the herbicides and fertilizers used and the establishment of pits for trash and human waste, according to NPS authorities.

The amount of human activity required to grow the illegal crops is causing widespread damage in the National Parks, SMMNRA included, leading some experts to suggest it has become the biggest threat in the nation’s cherished parks.

The herbicides and pesticides used to remove small native animals and competing vegetation, actually native plants, spill into the streams and waterways. The irrigation systems can dewater those small streams and compact soils in the gardens leading to erosion.

Growers clear trees and brush to cultivate the weed. Some sophisticated operations even include terracing hillsides that stir up soils and attract plants that would otherwise not grow. The diversion of water is hindering the movement of wildlife and pollution from fertilizer runoff is killing fish.

In some locations, thick brush is hacked and trees stripped of limbs. Irrigation hoses can be as long as a mile and the terraced hillsides are dotted with hundreds of deep holes that hold the marijuana plants.

The trend is for the growers to live on and sometimes off the land. The amount of trash is staggering in the wildland areas with empty soda and beer cans, food wrappers, propane canisters, discarded clothing and human waste.

Authorities are also finding animal traps, pellet guns, slingshots and in one instance, a rabbit hutch, suggesting the growers are hunting for food.

A ranger here in the local mountains said during a recent raid, law enforcement encountered no rattlesnakes where there should have been some. “People don’t understand how these operations ae impacting parklands. The NAS doesn’t have the money to do the necessay restoration,” the ranger said.

The pot farm in the Santa Monicas was planted along the streamside, meaning the pesticides and herbicides will eventually flow directly into the creek and the riparian corridor was torn up to make way for the marijuana plants.

The massive scale of the operations, which at one time were more generally confined to Northern California, has spread to all of the parks in the state.

Visitors, who used to worry most about encountering a bear, now have to contend with masked gunmen carrying an AK-47.

More than 100,000 plants have been seized in Sequoia-King’s Canyon National Park since 2004 and recently a pot farm was discovered in Yosemite.

Park rangers acknowledge that for years they might have stumbled across a small stand or patch of the illegal substance, but in the past five years individuals have gone from planting a little more or less than an acre to hundreds of acres scattered over public lands

Authorities say the change can be attributed to crops being handled by a handful of Mexican drug cartels, which have taken over the state’s billion-dollar marijuana industry. The California product can sell for around $4000 per pound.

The center of the industry has spread from the so-called Emerald Triangle around the Mendocino area into the Sierra foothills and the mountains southward.

The national forests are not immune. The Forest Service said 440,000 plants were seized on forest lands. In a news release issued by the Forest Service, visitors are advised to watch out for illegal marijuana gardens, which are grown in very remote locations and tend to be away from areas that are frequented by the public.

The question of restoration is only now being discussed, but in most instances, the NPS does not allocate money for such an undertaking.

Sequoia-King’s Canyon NP has spent more than $72,000 during the past two years to clean up 81 cultivation sites.

No one knows how much fertilizer and pestic.

That coupled with the ever growing involvement of the Mexican drug cartels in the marijuana trade, has caused the problem to reach a critical juncture.

A recent study suggests marijuana is the leading cash crop in the state and the nation and eradication campaigns have done little to reduce the availability of the illegal substance.

Published reports indicate that $1.3 million a year in federal money supports the eradication programs which last year resulted in 477 raids in 34 counties yanking out plants valued at $6.7 billion.

2003 Malibu High Grad Killed in Iraq

BY HANS LAETZ

Sgt. Robert T. “Bobby” Ayres III, a 2003 Malibu High School graduate, was killed Sept. 29 in Iraq, shot by an insurgent as he exited a vehicle in Baghdad’s Green Zone. He was 23.

The Department of Defense official statement said Ayers “died of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire.” He was one of 4000 soldiers in Iraq from the Army’s 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, based in Vilseck, Germany.

Ayres was buried Wednesday in a private ceremony at the Los Angeles National Veterans Cemetery in Westwood.

“He died doing something he was really committed to, he really believed in what he was doing,” said his father, Robert Ayres II, of El Paso, Texas.

“He told me, ‘Dad, the Iraqi people are awesome, and they need my help,’” the senior Ayres said.

Ayres was on his second tour of duty and has spoken at Malibu High about the war and his experiences in the Army, students said.

During the last years of his high school education, Ayres was “being ushered through his adolescent years” by Malibu High School teacher Nancy Schellkopf, said principal Mark Kelly.

Schellkopf said she and another Malibu teacher, Scott Bilotti, helped Ayres with his education and lifestyle choices while he was enrolled at the campus.

Schellkopf has taught middle school science in Malibu for more than 35 years, and her students say she has talked with them about Ayres. On occasion, Ayres telephoned from Iraq during class, owing to the time difference between California and Iraq.

Kelly had Malibu teachers read a brief statement about Ayres in class Thursday, and called for a moment of silence. The flag was lowered to half staff at the school Thursday, as well as at the State Capitol last Wednesday in Ayres’ honor by order of the governor.

“We certainly have appreciated the support, and words, and cards,” Schellkopf said Sunday.

Ayres grew up in Los Osos, a small town near Morro Bay, before moving to Southern Califoria at age 15. His mother, Michelle Ayres, still lives there. She told the San Luis Obispo Tribune that her son “was a happy, funny and just a really sweet boy. He was fighting for the country and the people that he loved.”

Ayres is also survived by his twin brother Jackson Ayres of Atascadero; brother Aaron Mizrahi of Los Angeles; and sisters Dothy Ayres of Los Angeles and Mimi Mizrahi of Los Osos.

Ayres is the first known Malibu High graduate to die in armed combat, Kelly said. Several Malibuites were killed in the Vietnam War, which predated the establishment of the high school.

The Associated Press reported that as of last Wednesday, 3807 United States servicemen and women have died in or supporting the war in Iraq.

Opponents Take Aim at Clearwater Port LNG Project

• Mobilization Skills Honed in BHP Defeat Are Expected to Play Key Role •

By Hans Laetz

Malibu and Ventura County residents—for the second time in a week—told state and federal regulators what they think about offshore liquefied natural gas terminals at a pair of hearings Wednesday in Oxnard.

As with a hearing a week earlier and 70 miles away in Los Angeles, the vast majority of people speaking at this week’s sessions opposed the concept of bringing LNG into California waters in general.

The topic this week was an environmental scoping session for Clearwater Port, the NorthernStar Natural Gas proposal to convert a 28-year-old offshore oil rig about 10 miles off the Ventura County coast—35 miles from Malibu—into an LNG facility. A similar hearing was held last week for a separate project by a competing firm: the Woodside Natural Gas OceanWay project that would be anchored in Santa Monica Bay, 21 miles south of Point Dume.

As they did with the Woodside project, regulators called a scoping session to hear views on what environmental yardsticks should be used to measure the impact of the NorthernStar project. Although many comments were made that were germane to that issue, most people used the platform to take a public stand on the project’s overall desirability.

Malibu Mayor Pro Tem Pamela Conley Ulich asked regulators to consider the LNG terminal’s proposed regasification technology to be highly speculative, and gave them a professional journal article that said large-scale use of the technology has not been proven.

“Where’s the proof that this will work?” she asked.

Conley Ulich reminded the hearing organizers that state officials only five months ago rejected the proposed BHP Billiton offshore LNG terminal off western Malibu.

“You are mindful of all the issues you dealt with on BHP Billiton, they still are here,” she said. “We can do better, utilizing things like conservation and alternative fuels. We don’t need to keep relying on this fossil fuel, the dinosaur, this LNG.”

Several persons supporting the Clearwater Port LNG facility bristled at comparisons made by opponents between it and the Cabrillo Port project from BHP that went down to defeat in April.

But Clearwater opponents, who outnumbered supporters at the first hearing by about a 4-1 ratio, emphasized that many of the BHP issues apply.

Malibu resident Diane Moss said current state policy is to use new sources of fossil fuel only as a third choice, after conservation and alternative fuels are employed.

Oxnard resident Nancy Peterson, whose home overlooks the offshore oil platform that would host LNG unloading operations, said her neighbors were promised in the 1960s that the oil platforms would be removed when they reached the end of their life spans.

“I’ve spent four years fighting BHP Billiton and I will fight this one as well,” she said.

Peterson and others noted that several whales have been struck and killed by ships in the Santa Barbara Channel, and that this LNG terminal would increase ship traffic by more than 100 transits a year.

“I find it remarkable that [NorthernStar] took people out to see the whales and listen to their story at the same time that whales were dying as a result of ships,” she said.

Ventura resident Leslie Purcell agreed. “I actually went out on one of the trips to look at the platform. Why have we had two whales in just over one week killed just offshore here? This is a huge deal, the ports of L.A. say they’re going to double their traffic coming in and out in the next few years.”

Lawyers from the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center said they are concerned about the 28-year-old oil platform, which sits in about 320 feet of water. They asked for research into the possible corrosive effect of a large mound of shells, marine debris and trash that apparently has built up around the oil rig’s legs over the decades.

Company officials have designated several studies about the structural integrity of the oil rig as “proprietary” information, and withheld them from public view. But they stressed that regulatory officials will have full access to these reports, and said the platform will be fortified to meet the strictest government and industry standards.

Camarillo real estate agent Robert Taylor pointed out several differences between BHP Billiton’s proposal and the NorthernStar effort. “I can’t understand why anyone is comparing this to BHP,” he said.

“Please do not let the vocal few convince you that the community does not support this project,” Taylor said. “This is a project designed by Californians for Californians, and this community overwhelmingly supports this project.” Clearwater project manager Billy Owens rose to say, that while Wednesday’s session was for community input, he wanted “to respectfully disagree” that his company’s project is like the BHP Billiton Cabrillo Port effort. Owens noted that his project would comply with local smog rules and use naturally warm air to regasify the LNG.

But Oxnard resident Larry Godwin noted that a massive amount of LNG being warmed from 260 degrees below zero to room temperature will drastically cool moist sea air. “When atmospheric conditions are right, we’re going to end up with a fog bank,” he said. “How often and when? How will it affect commercial shipping?”

Malibu Officials Challenge Procedures at First OceanWay Hearing

• Representative for Project Area Says LNG Terminal Would Be Prime Terrorist Target •

BY HANS LAETZ

Polite anger was simmering at a hearing last week on a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal 21 miles off Malibu, when the City of Los Angeles was blasted by two Malibu City Council members for ignoring the concerns of residents in Malibu, the closest city to the offshore project.

Mayor Pro Tem Pamela Conley Ulich and Councilmember Andy Stern were again rebuffed in efforts to have the federal government and Los Angeles schedule a meeting in Malibu to scope out the environmental criteria for “OceanWay,” a proposed LNG terminal 21 miles south of Point Dume.

Woodside Natural Gas wants to position a pair of ships at the Santa Monica Bay site, reheat LNG and push it through pipes across 29 miles of ocean bottom and then ashore under Dockweiler Beach, City of L.A. streets and Los Angeles International Airport.

The four-hour session was attended by more than 200 people from as far away as Ventura, Orange County and San Fernando who offered suggestions on which environmental issues should be considered as the proposal is evaluated.

Although critics of the project dominated the hearing by a 4-1 margin, three neighborhood activists from the LAX area, where the gas pipeline will come ashore, endorsed it. Union officials representing pipefitters, ironworkers, maritime workers and sea captains also spoke on behalf of Woodside’s proposed OceanWay LNG terminal.

A field representative for Rep. Jane Harman, D-El Segundo, blasted the proposed LNG import terminal, which would sit next to LAX, as “an attractive target to terrorists.” Harman chairs the House Subcommittee on Intelligence and Terrorism Risk Assessment, and represents the LAX area in Congress.

“In my view,” she wrote in comments read into the record, “locating a complex network of LNG pipelines under parts of LAX would be tantamount to adding lighter fluid to a barbecue, at what experts agree is the top terrorist target in California.”

More key opposition surfaced at the meeting from L.A. City Councilmember Bill Rosendahl who represents the LAX area. He issued a statement that Woodside’s terminal potentially poses “serious environmental, health and safety risks for the community at large, and is an unfair imposition on nearby residents.”

Malibu LNG activist Natalie Soloway noted that, unlike BHP’s Cabrillo Port, the Woodside “OceanWay” project is an open port. “Woodside can bring gas in from Indonesia, Malaysia, or from Russia, where there are very few environmental standards.”

Soloway noted that gas from those nations “burns hotter than our domestic gas and is much more corrosive to the pipelines. It will create problems with the infrastructure all the way down to the individuals’ gas gauges.”

Other objections to the proposed port in 3000 feet of water include environmentalists’ concerns about LNG ships fatally striking whales, and worries that crude oil tankers from a nearby Chevron deepwater port might again drag their anchor and collide with an LNG ship.

A large contingent of Oxnard and Ventura residents attended the meeting, and said the lessons from the four-year battle over BHP Billiton’s Malibu terminal are not forgotten. “I feel like we are talking to drug dealers, we are addicted to imported oil and these people all have nice smiling faces and they want to sell us more,” said Oxnard resident Jim Hensley.

“I am proud of my fellow residents from Ventura County,” said Alan Sanders of Port Hueneme. “We learned that LNG was wrong in our backyard, and it is wrong here.”

Favoring the project was Mike Arias, president of the Westchester-Playa Del Rey neighborhood council. “The impact to us as consumers will be positive,” he said, “as consumers can take advantage of additional sources of natural gas.”

“The ability to have clean fuel delivered to us via pipeline from 28 miles off our shore—that’s real progress,” enthused Art Pulaski from the California Labor Federation. “And it will provide jobs for the people who create prosperity in this state.”

Earlier in the session, Malibu Mayor Pro Tem Pamela Conley Ulich angrily told L.A. city project manager Linda Moore that L.A. was “making this process so cumbersome and difficult.” Conley Ulich noted that Moore had refused to make the City of Malibu’s comments a part of the official docket, even though L.A. is obligated to do so under the federal Deepwater Ports Act.

“What’s going on here, what are you afraid of?” Conley Ulich asked Moore.

The L.A. official did not answer, and also refused to explain just who exactly at the City of Los Angeles is responsible for decision-making in the Woodside matter, including the decision not to have a hearing in Malibu (see accompanying article).

“I long for the BHP Billiton days, when at least we had the courtesy and respect to have local hearings,” said Councilmember Andy Stern. “We deserve another public hearing, and we deserve it in Malibu.”

Malibu city officials complained that the meeting was not advertised locally, that the city was not formally notified even though it is the closest land to the project, and that they did not know about it until a Malibu Surfside News reporter asked them if they were planning to attend.

Coast Guard officials stressed during the meeting that public comments can be made in writing, either by U.S. Mail, or by filling out a form on the docket website. But officials also noted that the docket is about to be taken offline for major retooling, and therefore extended the electronic filing deadline to Oct. 15.

Activists noted that the public is expected to comment on a 5721-page application that was released without notice eight days ago. Environmental activist Marcia Hanscom asked that the comment period be expanded to 90 days but received no response.

One surprise came near the end of the meeting, when Keith Lesnick, the director of deepwater ports for the Federal Maritime Administration, revealed that the BHP Billiton project off Malibu would have faced a federal veto had the state of California not killed it last April.

“I can tell you now, that if the BHP process had ever gotten to the Maritime Administrator, it would have been denied,” Lesnick said at the Wednesday hearing.

Who Will Make Final Decision on OceanWay LNG Proposal?

BY HANS LAETZ

Malibu residents were rankled last week by what they said were evasive answers from a City of Los Angeles official on who has the final say on the LNG terminal proposed for 21 miles off Point Dume.

The Los Angeles procedure is of key importance, as that city holds veto power over the Woodside Natural Gas proposal. But just how that power will be wielded by the city was not made clear last week, and may still be in flux, a City of L.A. official said.

Los Angeles project manager Linda Moore startled the Coast Guard official moderating the meeting when she turned down his request to explain L.A.’s decision-making chain of authority. “I would prefer not to,” Moore answered, as scattered catcalls arose from the audience.

“I can’t give you an answer to that question, it’s just too complex to describe,” she told some Malibu and Oxnard residents after the hearing. “I am not in a position to discuss every step of the project.”

Malibu residents, however, continued to press Moore about who at the City of Los Angeles will make the final determinations on the LNG project, which is six miles closer to Malibu than to L.A. “I would recommend that you ask that question in a letter to the docket,” she said, referring to the federal computerized list of public documents.

One Malibuite replied that the docket is basically an electronic file cabinet incapable of responding to inquiries and that questions about how the City of Los Angeles functions should be answered at what was billed as an informational meeting. But Moore said nothing.

Last Friday, a city spokesperson told the Malibu Surfside News that three separate autonomous commissions in Los Angeles would each vote on an aspect of the LNG proposal—with only one of those three decisions going on to the 15-member L.A. City Council for ratification.

The Board of Airport Commissioners will have to decide if the 36-inch-diameter, high-pressure pipeline will be allowed to be built across Los Angeles International Airport property, parallel to the controversial northern runways, which may be realigned soon for aircraft safety reasons.

The Recreation and Parks Commission will have to decide whether to allow the pipelines to cross 3.6 miles of city-owned ocean bottom, and be tunneled under public beaches near LAX.

Neither the Parks nor Airport Commission decisions need to go before the city council, the spokesperson said.

But the L.A. Transportation Commission will have to vote on whether to allow the 36-inch, high-pressure gas line to be buried beneath several miles of major streets north and east of LAX. That decision, under L.A.’s city charter, will have to be signed off on by the council, with L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa holding a veto power that can be overridden by a council supermajority.

Under federal energy laws, Malibu has no vote, even though it is the closest city to the proposed LNG terminal. Offshore LNG terminals are regulated by the federal government and the California State Lands Commission, but L.A. preempts the state in this case because the city holds property rights dating back to those granted by the King of Spain, before California became a state.

Malibu HOA Challenges Conservancy Parks Plan

• Ramirez Canyon Group Tries to Rally Opposition

BY BILL KOENEKER

The Ramirez Canyon Preservation Fund, a homeowners group, long a foe of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy’s actions, especially in its namesake canyon, is urging other homeowner associations to send members to the Oct. 9 City of Malibu Planning Commission meeting when it will review the proposed SMMC parks and trails plan.

The plan has encountered growing opposition from Malibu residents who oppose overnight camping planned for Charmlee Park and voice other concerns.

In addition, the plan is a proposal to complete trail connections for the Coastal Slope Trail and other connector trails throughout the mountain areas, linking Zuma Canyon with Ramirez Canyon and Solstice Canyon Park through Escondido Canyon Park to Corral Canyon Park.

The Conservancy seeks to amend the city’s Local Coastal Program to incorporate what officials call the “Malibu Parks Public Access Enhancement Plan.”

Ramirez homeowners contend that under the plan the Conservancy would have “special rules for their properties—rules which are not compatible with the Malibu [Local Coastal Program].”

The plan specifies public access, recreational facilities and program improvements for increased accessibility for visitors with disabilities, including fully accessible overnight camping.

However, the Ramirez Fund states the plan is unclear about the number of campsites, or campers. It states that camp areas with more than 25 sites should provide two American Disabilities Act accessible sites.

“The Fund adamantly opposes camping near residential neighborhoods, except for closely supervised camping for the disabled at SMMC’s Ramirez Canyon property,” states a Fund letter sent out to other HOA groups.

The HOA maintains that, given the high fire danger, camping puts park users and local residents “at unnecessary and irresponsible risk. Camping cannot be made safe. Rangers cannot adequately supervise trail camps.”

Some of the Fund’s concerns, expressed in the letter sent out to the HOAs soliciting attendance at next week’s planning commission meeting, contend the state agency is using the LCP amendment process in an effort to “weaken” Malibu’s LCP protections for Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Areas.

The Fund letter ticks off a list of uses the LCP amendment would establish for the SMMC, including allowing motor vehicles in ESHAs, requiring 100-foot stream/ riparian ESHA buffers only where ‘feasible,’ not requiring site-specific biological studies for proposed development, providing that trails which unavoidably impact ESHAs “shall” be found consistent with the LCP, allowing extensive grading and site disturbance of ESHAs and not providing for review by city biologist or Environmental Review Board.

The plan would also allow alteration of streams for pedestrian and or vehicle crossings at all SMMC properties “in violation of the Malibu LCP and the requirements of the state Department of Fish and Game.”

The letter asks other questions about the plan, including how SMMC’s trails plan will impact the city’s own efforts to create a master trails plan.

It also asks, if the policies developed in the LCP amendment are approved, will it in effect create special rules for the SMMC for each of its properties creating de facto “overlay zones.”

Initially, the plan encountered opposition from city officials because the SMMC planned to sidestep Malibu and go directly to the California Coastal Commission for approval.

The Conservancy bowed to municipal pressure, after threats of litigation, to seek city approval for the park proposal through the LCP process.

At the same time, the city, in an attempt to mollify some critics of the trails and park proposal and to bring SMMC officials to the negotiating table, offered to consider overnight camping in Charmlee Park in western Malibu instead of the mid-Malibu locations sought by the SMMC.

Crashed Ferrari Driver’s Chopper for Sale by Malibu Man

• $57,000 Top-of-the-Line Custom Motorcycle Reflects the High Life Stefan Eriksson Lived •

BY ANNE SOBLE

Just as the rare, red $1.5 million Enzo Ferrari crashed by Stefan Eriksson in Malibu in February 2006 reflected the jet-setting lifestyle the Swedish businessman and ex-felon led in Bel Air, so did his taste in two-wheel forms of transportation.

Just before the spectacular crash that made headlines around the world, Eriksson walked into Schwartzkopf Exclusive Customs in Marina del Rey, a motorcycle Mecca known worldwide, and plunked down his American Express Black Card for a $57,000 chopper.

The masterpiece of mechanical engineering was designed and built by owner Eric Schwartzkopf and his crew, who craft mean wheels for an international A-list of affluent easy riders.

The six-speed, dual carburetor, air suspension chopper has a 124-cubic-inch S and S Super Sidewinder engine with all performance machine controls packaged on a satin nickel-plated frame that is matte black.

The 300x18 fat rear tire may prompt some to be reminded of Eriksson’s mobster moniker (according to the Swedish press), Tjock Steffe, or “Fat Steffy” (the nickname for Stefan).

Schwartzkopf said the bike, every component of which is “top of the line,” took over five months to complete. The bike was originally designed for someone else, but was on display at the shop when Eriksson decided he wanted it. Schwartzkopf said, “He didn’t strike me as the kind of man who would wait five to six months for anything.”

As was the case with the high-performance Ferrari, the bike designer said the chopper would have no problems exceeding either the speed or the noise limits on any local roadway.

The motorcycle is now owned by longtime Malibu resident Peter Tripp who has put it up for sale. The printer supplies business owner, who is a former studio musician for Jan and Dean and others, bought the bike after his son, who worked at Schwartzkopf Customs, took a call from Eriksson’s attorneys indicating that he had to sell the bike for cash because all of his assets were frozen.

British banks had the Swede prosecuted in Los Angeles for fraud on the Enzo and two other high performance sports cars. He is still serving a three-year jail sentence and is expected to be deported to his native Sweden, or to Germany, where his wife and children now reside with her family. When he returns to Europe, he may face no shortage of other legal woes related to his business dealings abroad.

According to the already mounting lore about the sleek two-wheeler, federal authorities impounded it with all of his other material possessions of value, but his lawyers were reportedly able to get the bike back for him because of paperwork showing that it was paid for in full.

Tripp said he will bring the motorcycle out to Malibu to show potential local buyers, but it is currently on display on the Schwartzkopf showroom floor.

The motorcycle’s hand-sewn leather seating and handle grips also have a local association. The fancy design was done by Eric Staudenbaur at Bill Wall Leather, a firm that has been designing works of leather art in Malibu for more than two decades.

Staudenbaur said the top of the seat and the handles are covered in sharkskin, the sides are Italian calf, and the logo is sterling silver. He noted that the floral scrollwork is a traditional design.

Tripp is asking $46,000 for the chopper that the man who is now dubbed “Ferrari Guy” never got to enjoy. Whoever buys it can expect it to attract attention, even if the onlooker doesn’t know the story of one of the most famous car crashes in history. And if they do know it, that should increase the level of attention even more.

Whales and Ships Ahoy

• The Publisher’s Notebook •
Off the Malibu Coast: Whales and Ships Ahoy

BY ANNE SOBLE

When the decomposing remains of one of the blue whales killed by a ship strike two weeks ago floated onto Broad Beach early Sunday morning, it was a portent that there is no escaping the need to address the potential for future fatal clashes between these endangered goliaths of the sea and the vessels that traverse these waters. The blue whales are responding to instinctive calls for food and social bonding that are immutable. Those who own and captain the ships can reduce their speeds or change course to accommodate such an extraordinary species, or we will watch its numbers decline below the precarious total that now exists. The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History has confirmed that the three dead blues were killed by ships. Scientists appear confident they can rule out early concerns about domoic acid, which has wreaked havoc with the sea lion and dolphin population, as well as other species. Early conjecture that animals were becoming disoriented and colliding with vessels is not valid. Similarly, at least in the case of the first two blues that died prior to the start of the Navy’s exercises, interference from sonar has been tentatively removed from the suspect list. None of the necropsied animals showed signs of auditory damage, but critics point to sonar’s link to whale deaths in other areas and still urge the exercises’ curtailment. And they don’t want sonar discounted in future whale deaths that occur.

Assuming that the blue’s rancid remains don’t return to shore again, a circumstance that local residents should hope will be the case, the current focus must shift to ways to assure the greatest degree of protection for the whales still along the local coast. Proponents of emergency ship speed limits are lobbying elected officials and maritime agencies to set speed limits for ships in the Santa Barbara Channel and adjacent areas to protect the imperiled blues while their sole food source, krill, is abundant in the shipping lanes. The Center for Biological Diversity has petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal agency charged with enforcing the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, to set a speed limit of 10 nautical miles per hour in the Santa Barbara Channel for all vessels 65 feet or larger until the whales have left the channel. Similar speed limits were proposed on the East Coast to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. This measure should be implemented immediately.

Malibuite Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from Canadian Directors Guild

• Pioneer in ‘Golden Age of Television’ and Noted Filmmaker Adds to His List of Accolades •

BY ROBBY MAZZA

Longtime Malibu resident and director Paul Almond, who was a pioneer in Canadian broadcasting and film,was recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Directors Guild of Canada, where he did most of his work and is acknowledged as a trailblazer and consummate professional.

Although retired from the industry, Almond who has lived here more than 30 years with his wife Joan, has contributed his talents to many local projects. In 2001, he founded the One Act Plays for St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church. The annual event that presents plays with a moral or spiritual theme.

Almond began his career at the Canadian Broadcast Corporation in 1958. He attended Oxford, where he directed plays, working with students who became directors, including John Schlessinger and Tony Richardson. He was also an avid hockey player, who played professionally in Italy, before returning to Canada.

“I had always wanted to be a poet,” he said. “When I came back, I was living with the leading dancer of the National Ballet of Canada. She told me I needed to get a job and I said, ‘What? I’m a poet, I don’t work.’”

Apparently, that answer did not satisfy her. So he joined the CBC as its youngest producer and director, and within six weeks, had a production on the air, starting a career that would span four decades and prove to be one of the most innovative and groundbreaking in Canadian television. “I did a lot of firsts because it was new,” he quipped.

“In the ’60s Canadian television was the finest in the world,” he said. “It was ahead of BBC television because when BBC began in the late ’40s, there was a thriving film industry in England and it just adapted the film industry to television, so it didn’t truly use the medium to its fullest extent.

In America, television began in the late ’40s and early ’50s with some wonderful dramas, but it was controlled by CBS, NBC and ABC, and their main objective was to attract as large an audience as possible. Of course at CBC, we didn’t try to attract a large audience; we wanted to entertain and enlighten and even educate the little towns and villages all across Canada with no access to the world’s theater.”

Because the CBC was the only network in Canada, Almond had the opportunity to bring classic theater to television, including “MacBeth” with Sean Connery, “The Rose Tattoo,” and “Under Milkwood,” using innovative techniques and stage design.

“I believed television was closer to the radio medium, so therefore, the function of television was not only just to do the play but to stimulate the imagination, so when I did “Under Milkwood” by Dylan Thomas—the greatest radio play ever written—I did it on a set with just a fragment of light and shade so the imagination would be stimulated,” he said.

When the BBC did it, they went to a real village. It was a radio play, so it was meant to be poetic and the images were meant to be poetic, not just ‘here’s a cottage.’ They were meant to see the images that Dylan was creating with his words.”

Although his work was praised for its directoral and technical innovations, Almond did encounter some negativity. “I did a Pinter play—the first Pinter play ever done on television in Canada (“The Dumb Waiter”) and the CBC was the only channel in Canada,” he said. “We got so many hate letters from all across Canada because they didn’t understand Pinter. They’d ask, ‘What are you putting this rubbish on for?’ Well, because we wanted people to see what’s happening on the world stage.”

Almond also worked on several documentaries, including the first “Seven Up,” in 1965, a series that follows the lives of seven British children, tracing their lives every seven years.

“We wanted to reflect Canada to the Canadians back in the ’50s and ’60s. Therefore, we were doing things they couldn’t do in America, which was controlled by the commercial interests, and they didn’t do it in England because they didn’t have the fluidity and new approaches we pioneered in Canada. We did lead the world in the Golden Age of television in the ’50s and ’60s,” he said.

His pioneering did not just stop at television. He started Quest Film Productions in 1966, the oldest motion picture company in Canada. Almond made the first motion picture in Canada—“Isabel”—that was made with a major studio, using only Canadians—cast and crew (starring his then-wife Genevieve Bujold)—for which he was nominated for a Director’s Guild of America Award and won best film in Canada in 1968. He produced four more films at Quest, two of which featured Bujold.

“My films were groundbreakers in a way and were quite different than the run-of-the mill films and recognized as such by the American critics,” he said. Canadian critics never came to terms with me but the American critics were very kind and generous in their praise. I’ve been attacked so often in so many media that I don’t think anything can alarm me.”

During his career, Almond has received several awards for his work, including the Ohio State Award, Liberty Awards and 12 Genies—Canada’s equivalent of the Oscar. He has also been awarded Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee Medal, an award created by Queen Elizabeth to be given to citizens who have made a significant contribution to Canada, to their community, or to their fellow citizens. But, Almond says, the most important recognition he has received is being named an Officer of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor, in 2002. It is so prestigious,” he said. “There are so few Officers of the Order of Canada that it iss a great honor. I don’t know how on earth they gave it to me.” He laughed, “I keep saying that there are so many wonderful directors but they’re dead and I think that the secret is if you can stay alive.”

Although flattered about receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award he says he wouldn’t want to direct anymore. He has returned to his favorite medium, the written word. He has authored two books and now plans to spend the next few weeks in Gaspe on the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, where he grew up, pursuing his ongoing love, writing.

“I am writing a series of eight to 10 books which trace the major developments of North American history from 1800 to the present as seen through the eyes of a settler family on the banks of the St. Lawrence in Gaspe,” he said. “History books are always so dull. I flunked history in school. I hated it, I couldn’t face it, all those dates,” he laughs. “So I thought, if I can write a bunch of stories that are exciting and gripping with man against wilderness, kids and adults will read and say ‘that’s how people lived back then.’”

“I’ll be staying in an old wooden house, and then I’ll come back to the world of light in Malibu, back to my wonderful obscurity,” he said, “It’s time to just relax and be creative in a simple way instead of having 60 or 100 people running around on a film set. Now I have a computer and a blank piece of paper—it’s a much easier way to create.”